Announcing The Story Prize Judges: Jane Ciabattari, Yiyun Li, and Sarah McNally

We're excited about this year's judges for The Story Prize: critic and writer Jane Ciabattari, award-winning author Yiyun Li, and bookseller Sarah McNally. All three have strong ties to The Story Prize. Jane Ciabattari, who recently served as president of the National Book Critics Circle, has attended the event for several years. Yiyun Li was a finalist for books published in 2010. And the bookstore that Sarah McNally established and operates—McNally Jackson Books in New York City—has sold books at The Story Prize event for the last three years. Past judges have included fiction writers Sherman Alexie, Andrea Barrett, Dan Chaon, Edwidge Danticat, David Gates, A.M. Homes, Jayne Anne Phillips, and Hannah Tinti; Booksellers Ann Chistophersen, Mitchell Kaplan, Rick Simonson, and Marie du Vuare; Librarians Nancy Pearl, Patricia Groh, and Bill Kelly; Editors John Freeman, Brigid Hughes, Daniel Menaker, and Meghan O'Rourke; critic James Wood; book bloggers Ron Hogan and Carolyn Kellogg; translator Breon Mitchell; and event curator Louise Steinman.   The judges play an important role in determining the winner of The Story Prize. They decide from among the three books that Story Prize Director Larry Dark and Julie Lindsey, the founder of the award, select from among the more than 80 books they receive as entries each year. The announcement of the finalists will come in January. The judges will then have about a month to read those selections and each vote for her top choices. The authors will appear at an event at The New School on March 13, 2013, and at the end of that, we'll announce the winner that Jane Ciabattari, Yiyun Li, and Sarah McNally have selected.