Nigerian authors Jane Kalu and Chika Unigwe are among the 20 winners of the 2025 O. Henry Prize for short fiction!

Jane Kalu’s short story “Sickled” was published in American Short Fiction and Chika Unigwe’s “Miracle in Lagos Traffic” can be found in the Michigan Quarterly Review.

Chika Unigwe is the author of many novels, short stories, and poetry collections. Her 2011 novel On Black Sisters Street (Random House) won the Nigeria Prize for Literature. The Middle Daughter (Dzanc Books, 2023) is her most recent book.

Jane Kalu studies creative writing and literature at the University of Southern California and is a graduate of the MFA program at the University of New Mexico. Her short fiction has been featured or is forthcoming in Boston Review, Narrative Magazine, Isele Magazine, and elsewhere. She is at work on a novel and a collection of short stories.

Turns out Kalu and Unigwe have met before! Unigwe posted the news of her story winning the prize to her Facebook page with this very sweet caption celebrating Jane Kalu: “About 3 years ago, I was approached by a Nigerian writer (MFA student at the University of New Mexico) to be on her defense committee. Her stories (her thesis collection) were so good , I still rave about them. Today I am happy to announce that both of us are among the winners of the 2025 O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction. The winning stories were chosen by Edwar P. Jones whose works I have long admired.”

What a great lovely way to reconnect!

With the goal of strengthening the art of the short story, the O. Henry Prize, named after the American short story writer, is annually awarded to the year’s twenty best stories published in U.S. and Canadian magazines. Selected by a guest editor, the twenty winning stories are published by Vintage, Penguin Random House, in partnership with PEN America.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was this award’s very first guest editor. This year’s stories were selected by guest editor Edward P. Jones, an American novelist and short story writer who has received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the International Dublin Literary Award for The Known World.

The anthology containing Kalu and Unigwe’s short stories, alongside those by Wendell Berry, Dave Eggers, Ling Ma, and Lori Ostlund, will be out September 9, 2025. Pre-order your copy here!