Author Description

The annual O. Henry Awards are one of the highlights of the literary season. Here are 21 stories, the finest in contemporary American short fiction. This year's first prize has been jointly awarded to Jane Smiley for "Lily," and to Stuart Dybek for "Hot Ice." "Lily" is the moving, ironic story of a woman, beautiful, intelligent, but unloved, who seeks to find out why, for all her gifts, she remains untouched by intimacy or passion. "Hot Ice" is a tale of poetic darkness and intensity which revolves around the powerful local legend of a girl drowned and preserved in ice. These two stories represent opposite ends of the spectrum--how much life the story can encompass