We've revamped The Story Prize Web site, adding audio and video, as well as pull-down menus that enhance the navigation, thanks to Web master John Parsons, who created the precociously classic look of the site.The audio is of an appearance on WNYC's Lopate Show with the 2006/07 finalists for The Story Prize--Rick Bass, Mary Gordon, and George Saunders. The video consist of two Web casts: one from the 2006 event with finalists Jim Harrison, Maureen McHugh, and Patrick O'Keeffe; and a slicker production from last year's event with Tessa Hadley, Vincent Lam, and Jim Shepard.
Missing in action is audio from our first event at Symphony Space in 2005, some of which we hope to add soon. We'll also link to this year's Web cast once it's up, which should be a couple of weeks after the event. Our goal is to create an audio and video archive of all of our annual award events. As before, you can also see photos from each year.
In addition, we've finally posted a page on the fourteen other notable story collections from 2008. I provided the list itself here a couple of weeks ago. The page on the Web site adds text to that, with a paragraph on each book focusing on one particular story. We can't recommend these books highly enough. We also have lists from 2007, 2006, and 2005.
And while we're at it, we might as well mention that The Story Prize event is just a month away, with finalists Jhumpa Lahiri, Joe Meno, and Tobas Wolff reading from and discussing their work at the New School on March 4. Why wait for the Web cast when you can see it live?