The Story Prize Longlist for Short Story Collections Published in 2019

In 2019, The Story Prize received as entries 94 books published by 72 publishers or imprints. We choose the shortlist of three finalists first, then release our longlist a few weeks later. Between the three finalists, The Story Prize Spotlight Award winner, and the longlist, we acknowledge a total of 20 books. Here then is the longlist of 16 outstanding short story collections:

• Sing to It by Amy Hempel (Scribner)
• False Bingo by Jac Jemc (MCD x FSG Originals)
• Joy by Erin McGraw (Counterpoint)
• Instructions for a Funeral by David Means (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Minutes of Glory by Ngũgĩ  wa Thiong'o (The New Press)
• Honey in the Carcase by Josip Novakovich (Dzanc Books)
• Maggie Brown & Others by Peter Orner (Little, Brown and Company)
• Black Light by Kimberly King Parsons (Vintage Books)
• The Rapture Index by Molly Reid (BOA Editions)
• You Know You Want This by Kristen Roupenian (Scout Press)
• Orange World by Karen Russell (Alfred A. Knopf)
• The World Doesn't Require You by Rion Amilcar Scott (Liveright)
• Guestbook by Leanne Shapton (Riverhead Books)
• She Was Like That by Kate Walbert (Scribner)
• Home Remedies by Xuan Juliana Wang (Hogarth)
• Lot by Bryan Washington (Riverhead Books)

Every writer who published a short story collection in 2019 accomplished something of great significance and deserves an enormous amount of credit. It's always difficult to narrow the field down, and this time was no exception.

We'll announce the winner of The Story Prize at an event co-sponsored with The New School's Creative Writing program at the auditorium at 66 W. 12 Street on March 6. At the event, finalists Edwidge Danticat, Kali Fajardo-Anstine, and Zadie Smith will read from and discuss their work. You can buy tickets in advance online or that night at the box office.