The Best Short Stories 2025

The prestigious annual story anthology, featuring prize-winning stories by a diverse and exciting array of writers, including Wendell Berry, Alice Hoffman, Dave Eggers, Ling Ma, Lori Ostlund, and Anthony Marra. Continuing a century-long tradition of cutting-edge literary excellence, this year's edition contains twenty prizewinning stories chosen from the thousands published in magazines over the previous year. Guest editor Edward P. Jones has brought his own refreshing perspective to the prize, selecting stories by an engaging mix of celebrated names and emerging voices. The winning stories are accompanied by an introduction by Jones, observations from the winning writers on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines that publish short fiction. THE WINNING STORIES “The Stackpole Legend,” Wendell Berry “The Arrow,” Gina Chung “That Girl,” Addie Citchens “The Pleasure of a Working Life,” Michael Deagler “Blackbirds,” Lindsey Drager “Hearing Aids,” Clyde Edgerton “Sanrevelle,” Dave Eggers “Stump of the World,” Madeline ffitch “Shotgun Calypso,” Indya Finch “City Girl,” Alice Hoffman “Sickled,” Jane Kalu “The Spit of Him,” Thomas Korsgaard, translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken “Winner,” Ling Ma “Countdown,” Anthony Marra “Just Another Family,” Lori Ostlund “Mornings at the Ministry,” Ehsaneh Sadr “Rosaura at Dawn,” Daniel Saldaña París, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney “Three Niles,” Zak Salih “Strange Fruit,” Yah Yah Scholfield “Miracle in Lagos Traffic,” Chika Unigwe

EDWARD P. JONES has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Lannan Literary Award for The Known World. His first collection of short stories, Lost in the City, won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was short-listed for the National Book Award. Jones received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2005 and was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2019. In 2024 The Known World was voted “the best work of fiction by an American writer in the 21st century” by The New York Times which also included his story collection All Aunt Hagar’s Children as one of The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. The Known World appears on Kirkus Reviews’ list of the Best Books of the 21st Century (So Far). Jones is a Professor of Creative Writing at The George Washington University. He was born and raised in Washington, DC where he still resides. JENNY MINTON QUIGLEY is the author of a memoir, The Early Birds, and editor of the anthology Lolita in the Afterlife. She lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, with her husband, sons, and dogs.