Since 1963 the Pen Awards and later, including the O.Henry Prize, have been awarded to published short stories nominated by the leadership of the literary magazines that published them. Each year affords connoisseurs of short stories a new collection of delicious entries that can be read and re-read with gusto.

The PEN/ O. Henry Prize collection for 2009 is excellent in it's anthology of unique stories and ideas that we have not considered previously. The book is full of surprises that a second reading of the stories does little to diminish. Many of these tales will become classics, some in the same vein as Edgar Allen Poe's works. Others are mystical or odd, and some are utterly uplifting, even amid dire circumstances. This year's book is simply a joy to read and to own in its range of subjects and characters.

The stories in this prize winning collection contain the O.Henry Twist, as it might be called...

O. Henry wrote the most well known Christmas story The Gift of the Magi. for that he will never be forgotten. That tale has been emulated on stage, screen, and TV, in adult and children's entertainment vehicles, and even in cartoons. The story is everywhere and gives one pause to consider life and relationships more fully - to become more appreciative of friends and family.

One of my favorite renditions of this theme is an old Twilight Zoneepisode in which an astronaut will save himself from aging 30 years by entering a sort of cryo-sleep chamber on his journey to another planet, presumable Mars. This saddens him, because is fiance on Earth will age. The O. Henry twist in this drama is that the young woman enters a sleep chamber on Earth and arises from it on the day her young man returns from his outer space mission, only to find that he rejected his own sleep chamber and came back as an old man. It was heart breaking and a powerful depiction of the horrors of lack of communication in a relationship..

This episode is burned into my memory, and so too, are many of the stories int he 2009 Pen/O.Henry Prize collection. They will be with me always.

William Sydney Porter was born at the time of the American Civil War in 1862 in North Carolina. He was educated by an aunt and grew to loved books in general. He became a pharmacist and enjoyed depicting the local townspeople in cartoons much as James Thurber did in Columbus, Ohio in the 1900s.

By 1884, Porter had moved to Texas and become a sheep rancher ane moved on to several other jobs. He roomed with a family that had a cat called Henry and they seemed to be always calling him -- "Oh, Henry!" This is the legend of William's pen name, although some scholars think it may have been taken from an Ohio Penitentiary guard's name, on duty while Porter was imprisoned in Columbus. Perhaps the nome de plume honors both the cat and his prison time.

Being jailed was certainly a twist of its own - embezzling. He had left town, but returned to care for his dying wife and it is then that he was captured.

In the 1890s, Porter founded a humor weekly called Rolling Stone, but it failed. I wonder what today's Rolling Stone knows about that?

Porter served only 3 years of his 5-year sentence and wrote short stotries during those years, Upon his release, he had already begun calling himself O. Henry and had a dozen tales to publish. Moving to New York City to start over, he lived for another 10 years and wrote 300 stories. Unfortunately, the stories did not prosper until after he died before he reached 50. 

PEN is the voice of cultures truthfully addressing one another rather
than governments or armies in confrontation. —Arthur Miller

The PEN American Center is part of the oldest international literary and human rights organization. International PEN began in 1921 as a considered response to ethnic and national divisions that led to World War I.

PEN American Center was formed 1922, the largest of the 144 PEN centers in over 10o countries around the world. They honor and promote freedom of expression and literary excellence in all genres. Past Presidents have included Arthur Miller, who was attacked by the Communist Witch Hunts in the 1950s, and Salmon Rushdie, attacked on other fronts for a time. They both survived.

Every spring, PEN holds its Festival of International Literature.

PEN maintains its Open Book and Prison Writing programs, to uplift diversity of every kind and healing around the world in life and in literature. When you read the O.Henry Prize winners' works, you will see that diversity in ways you may not have considered - much like the Star Trek® Vuclans', or ore correctly Gene Roddenberry's, concept of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations (IDIC - which mortified Leonard Nimoy in its commerical bent). However, where IDIC was foremost a merchandise licensing concept, the PEN concept is foremost one of freedom,

Note these stories particularly in this year's collection:

• An Ordinary Soldier of the Queen - The Gulf War, butterflies, Arabs, and angels.
• The Bell Ringer - A woman discovers passion, but there remains a mystery until a sudden revelation appears.
• This is Not Your City - A Russian mail order bride and her daughter try to survive in northern Finland. The story is so real that you can feel the cold and isolation and shiver along with the characters.
• Twenty Two Stories by remouned writer Oaul Theroux - One-pagers with a punch at the end of each. Like a Haiku -- Or the Korean Sijo that always has an ending twist. (The link talks about the Sijo style and the not-alway-good changes made in it by the West.)
• The House Behind a Weeping Cherry - Chinese students surviving via prostitution, but living out the proverb " Contented where I am, but also willing to improve."

Don't miss this collection of stories. O. Henry has become one of my heroes.