Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Here Are Your Story Prize Finalists: Dan Chaon, Junot Díaz, and Claire Vaye Watkins

Dan Chaon           Claire Vaye Watkins                Junot Díaz
We’re pleased to announce the books and authors we've chosen as this year's finalists for The Story Prize:


These are all outstanding short story collection by skillful and accomplished authors, whom we're thrilled to have as finalists for The Story Prize. We read 98 short story collections from 65 different publishers or imprints in 2012. Quite a few would have made excellent finalists. It’s always hard to choose just three books, and it will be just as difficult (if not more so) to compile a short list of other notable collections we read in 2012.

We're also excited to announce something new, The Story Prize Spotlight Award, a $1,000 prize to a book submitted for The Story Prize that we believe deserves further attention. This year's winner is Krys Lee for Drifting House (Viking).

The Story Prize’s annual event will take place at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium in New York City at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 13. General admission tickets are $14. That night, the finalists will read from and discuss their work onstage. At the end, Julie Lindsey (Founder of The Story Prize) will announce which of these three deserving authors gets the top prize of $20,000—the most of any U.S. annual book award for fiction. Our three judges—critic Jane Ciabattari, author Yiyun Li, and bookseller Sarah McNally—are reading the books and will determine the outcome.