Edward P. Jones

The Known World

The nation's capital that serves as the setting for the stories in Edward P. Jones's prizewinning collection, Lost in the City, lies far from the city of historic monuments and national politicians. Jones takes the reader beyond that world into the lives of African American men and women who work against the constant threat of loss to maintain a sense of hope. From "The Girl Who Raised Pigeons" to the well-to-do career woman awakened in the night by a phone call that will take her on a journey back to the past, the characters in these stories forge bonds of community as they struggle against the limits of their city to stave off the loss of family, friends, memories, and, ultimately, themselves. Critically acclaimed upon publication, Lost in the City introduced Jones as an undeniable talent, a writer whose unaffected style is not only evocative and forceful but also filled with insight and poignancy.

Lost in the City

In fourteen sweeping and sublime stories, five of which have been published in The New Yorker, the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Known World shows that his grasp of the human condition is firmer than ever Returning to the city that inspired his first prizewinning book, Lost in the City, Jones has filled this new collection with people who call Washington, D.C., home. Yet it is not the city's power brokers that most concern him but rather its ordinary citizens. All Aunt Hagar's Children turns an unflinching eye to the men, women, and children caught between the old ways of the South and the temptations that await them further north, people who in Jones's masterful hands, emerge as fully human and morally complex, whether they are country folk used to getting up with the chickens or people with centuries of education behind them. In the title story, in which Jones employs the first-person rhythms of a classic detective story, a Korean War veteran investigates the death of a family friend whose sorry destiny seems inextricable from his mother's own violent Southern childhood. In "In the Blink of God's Eye" and "Tapestry" newly married couples leave behind the familiarity of rural life to pursue lives of urban promise only to be challenged and disappointed. With the legacy of slavery just a stone's throw away and the future uncertain, Jones's cornucopia of characters will haunt readers for years to come.

Stories

All Aunt Hagar's Children

A Dark Night

“Original and arresting….[Jones’s] stories will touch chords of empathy and recognition in all readers.” —Washington Post “These 14 stories of African-American life…affirm humanity as only good literature can.” —Los Angeles Times A magnificent collection of short fiction focusing on the lives of African-American men and women in Washington, D.C., Lost in the City is the book that first brought author Edward P. Jones to national attention. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and numerous other honors for his novel The Known World, Jones made his literary debut with these powerful tales of ordinary people who live in the shadows in this metropolis of great monuments and rich history. Lost in the City received the Pen/Hemingway Award for Best First Fiction and was a National Book Award Finalist. This beautiful 20th Anniversary Edition features a new introduction by the author, and is a wonderful companion piece to Jones’s masterful novel and his second acclaimed collection of stories, All Aunt Hagar’s Children.

Lost in the City - 20th anniversary edition

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

The O. Henry Prize Winners

The Best Short Stories 2025

New Essays

Nominated for the National Book Award, this masterful debut collection of interconnected short stories captures significant moments in the everyday lives of inner-city characters. "His (Jones) stories will touch chords of empathy and recognition in all readers".--New York Times.

Edward P. Jones

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