Announcing the 2023 Story Prize Judges: Merve Emre, Alllison Escoto, and Tania James!

(L to R) Merve Emre, Allison Escoto, and Tania James

Each year The Story Prize enlists three judges to choose the winner from among the three short story collections we select as finalists and annunce in January. In alternating years one of the judges is bookseller and one is a librarian. One judge is always a short story writer, and the third can be a critic, editor, or academic.

The judges who will choose the 20th winner of The Story Prize in March 2024 are critic and writer Merve Emre, head librarian at The Center for Fiction Allison Escoto, and novelist and short story writer Tania James. We didn't aim to have all three judges be women. It just turned out that this was the best group of judges we felt we could assemble this year—a pretty impressive bunch.

Merve Emre is the Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University and the Director of the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism. Her books include Paraliterary: The Making of Bad Readers in Postwar America, The Personality Brokers (selected as one of the best books of 2018 by The New York Times, The Economist, NPR, and The Spectator), The Ferrante Letters (winner of the 2021 PROSE award for literature), and The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway. She has been awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize, the Robert B. Silvers Prize for Literary Criticism, and the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing by the National Book Critics Circle. She is a contributing writer at The New Yorker.

Allison Escoto is the head librarian and director of education at The Center for Fiction in Brooklyn. She has worked as a librarian for more than twenty years in various libraries in and around New York City. She also reviews books for Booklist and serves on the ALA RUSA Notables committee. From 2017-2020, she was the Associate Editor for Newtown Literary Journal, a publication dedicated to featuring writers from her beloved Queens.

Tania James is the author of four works of fiction, most recently Loot (Knopf), which was longlisted for the 2023 National Book Award in fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Freeman’s; Granta; The New Yorker; O, The Oprah Magazine; and One Story, among other places, and featured on Symphony Space Selected Shorts. An associate professor of English in the MFA program at George Mason University, she lives in Washington, D.C.

Video of The Story Prize event: Andrea Barrett, Ling Ma (winner), and Morgan Talty

 Here's the edited video of The Story Prize event held on March 15. 

What the Judges Had to Say About The Story Prize Winner, Bliss Montage by Ling Ma

Photo © Beowulf Sheehan

When the three judges for The Story Prize make their choices, they provide citations for the books. This year's judges were critic, writer, and editor Adam Dalva, writer Danielle Evans, and bookseller and podcaster Miwa Messer. We include the citations in congratulatory letters we present to each finalist, along with their checks ($20,000 to the winner, $5,000 to the other two finalists). To protect the confidentiality of the judges' votes and the integrity of the process, we don't attribute citations to any particular judge. Here's what the judges had to say about Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty:

“There is much to love about this stylish, inventive collection—Ma melds humor and the surreal beautifully, resulting in a project that is at once absurd and insightful. Two of the stories feel like all-time greats: ‘Peking Duck’ is a many-layered masterpiece of telling and retelling that serves as counterpoint to the argument that nothing can be gained by writing about a writing class; ‘Returning’ is a meandering, brilliant look at separation, art, and unique traditions. The rest of the collection lives up to these high points, especially ‘Office Hours,’ with its uncanny ending. Who but Ling Ma could give us flirty yetis and an unforgettable baby arm, dangling? This is an expansive, bold, and delightful book.”

“The stories in Ling Ma’s collection, Bliss Montage, sneak up on you. Relationships old and new, a marriage on the rocks, a friendship that’s run its course, a wildly challenging pregnancy—we think we’ve heard these setups before. But then Ma takes a remarkable tack: 100 ex-boyfriends in your home, an unexpected baby arm, a Yeti, a harrowing homecoming (of sorts). At first the absurdities reveal a familiar sense of disbelief and loss. Sit longer, and the comically outlandish stories in Bliss Montage reveal a thrumming rage and grief, the shocking truths we try to ignore.” 

What The Story Prize Judges Had to Say About Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty

When the three judges for The Story Prize make their choices, they provide citations for the books. This year's judges were critic, writer, and editor Adam Dalva, writer Danielle Evans, and bookseller and podcaster Miwa Messer. We include the citations in congratulatory letters we present to each finalist, along with their checks ($20,000 to the winner, $5,000 to the other two finalists). To protect the confidentiality of the judges' votes and the integrity of the process, we don't attribute citations to any particular judge. Here's what the judges had to say about Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty:

“There’s a glorious soul—a convergence of humor and grief, anger and love—pulsing through Morgan Talty’s indelible debut, Night of the Living Rez. The language sings and stings in these painful, powerful tragicomic stories of David, his family and his friends, and a community challenged by poverty, addiction and trauma.” 

“Talty’s ambient, hazy stories are small wonders, teeming with pain that is consistently countered by the quiet, resilient warmth coursing through this fascinatingly structured collection. Though many of the collection's characters, inhabitants of the Penobscot Indian Nation reservation, suffer from difficulties ranging from mental illness to addiction, Talty’s sense-work and insightful touch offer light in the face of despair.”

 

What The Story Prize Judges Had to Say About Natural History by Andrea Barrett

Photo © Beowulf Sheehan

When the three judges for The Story Prize make their choices, they provide citations for the books. This year's judges were critic, writer, and editor Adam Dalva, writer Danielle Evans, and bookseller and podcaster Miwa Messer. We include the citations in congratulatory letters we present to each finalist, along with their checks ($20,000 to the winner, $5,000 to the other two finalists). To protect the confidentiality of the judges' votes and the integrity of the process, we don't attribute citations to any particular judge. Here's what the judges had to say about Natural History by Andrea Barrett:

“Andrea Barrett’s Natural History moves brilliantly through time and memory, building a complicated and compelling family tree. The stories in this collection are mesmerizing in their ability to balance illumination of the unknown or forgotten—lingering in lost histories, small moments of scientific wonder, and the private secrets of relationships—with a reverence for the unknowable, and a willingness to let stories or characters hold on to their mystery when it serves them.”

Ling Ma's Bliss Montage is the 19th Winner of The Story Prize!

photo © Beowulf Sheehan

The winner of The Story Prize for books published in 2022 is Bliss Montage (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) by Ling Ma. 

We announced Ma as the 19th winner of the prize after an evening of readings by and interviews with the three finalists for The Story Prize, Andrea Barrett for Natural History (W.W. Norton & Co.) and Morgan Talty for Night of the Living Rez, in addition to Ma.

 

The Story Prize’s $20,000 top prize is among the largest first-prize amounts of any annual U.S. book award for fiction. Ma also received an engraved silver bowl, which The Story Prize presents to all winners. As runners-up, Barrett and Talty each received $5,000.

Director Larry Dark and Founder Julie Lindsey selected the three finalists for The Story Prize, now in its 19th year, from among 119 books entered in 2022, representing 79 different publishers or imprints. Three judges—critic, author, and editor Adam Dalva; author Danielle Evans, and bookseller and podcaster Miwa Messer—determined the winner from among the three books chosen as finalists. 

Buy Bliss Montage, Natural History, Night of the LIving Rez other story collections published in 2022 from your local bookseller or on Bookshop.

Congratulations to Ling Ma and to Farrar, Straus and Giroux! 

Live-Stream The Story Prize Award Event on March 15 at 7:30 p.m.

The Story Prize event is just a week away. Although we're having a private award night this year, we're going to live-stream it on YouTube. Here's the link.

What you'll see and hear is the three finalists for The Story Prize for books published in 2022—Andrea Barrett for Natural History (W.W. Norton), Ling Ma for Bliss Montage (FSG), and Morgan Talty for Night of the Living Rez (Tin House)—read from and discuss their short story collections before we announce the 19th winner of The Story Prize and present that writer with an engraved silver bowl and the top prize of $20,000. The other two finalists will each take home $5,000.

Finalists Andrea Barrett, Ling Ma, and MorganTalty

If you miss the live-stream, you'll still be able to watch the video on our website and on YouTube in the days that follow. You can find videos of past events under the WINNERS menu on our home page or on YouTube.

The Story Prize Longlist for Story Collections Published in 2022

In 2022, The Story Prize received 119 books published by 79 publishers or imprints. Every writer who published a short story collection last year accomplished something significant and deserves a lot of credit. 

The Story Prize announces its shortlist of three finalists first—as we did a few weeks ago—then releases its longlist later. The three finalists, The Story Prize Spotlight Award winner, and the longlist combine to highlight twenty books. Here's the list:

• How Strange a Season by Megan Mayhew Bergman (Scribner)
• Seeking Fortune Elsewhere by Sindya Bhanoo (Catapult)
• Pretend It's My Body by Luke Dani Blue (The Feminist Press)
• Tomorrow in Shanghai by May-Lee Chai (Blair)
• Rainbow Rainbow by Lydia Conklin (Catapult)
• If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Stories From the Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana (Scribner)
• The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land by Omer Friedlander (Random House)
• A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times by Meron Hadero (Restless Books)
• Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho (Viking)
• Antipodes by Holly Goddard Jones (University of Iowa Press)
• The Haunting of Hajji Hotak by Jamil Jan Kochai (Viking)
• The Partition by Don Lee (Akashic Press)
• Two Nurses Smoking by David Means (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• The Consequences by Manuel Muñoz (Graywolf Press)
• Nobody Gets Out Alive by Leigh Newman (Scribner)

We've put together a Bookshop list of story collections that we received in 2022, many of them worth reading, even beyond this list. We'll announce the 19th winner of The Story Prize on March 15 at a private event featuring readings by and interviews with the three finalists—Andrea Barrett, Ling Ma, and Morgan Talty. Before then, we'll provide links to watch the program live or online in the days that follow.

God's Children Are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu Wins The Story Prize Spotlight Award

Beyond naming three finalists each year, we also present The Story Prize Spotlight Award to a collection of exceptional merit. Selected books can be promising works by first-time authors, collections in alternative formats, or works that demonstrate an unusual perspective on the writer's craft. The award includes a prize of $1,000. 

We're pleased to announce that the winner for books published in 2022 is God's Little Children Are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu, published by A Public Space Books. These nine evocative and immersive stories explore queer lives and loves amid an atmosphere of cultural intolerance. 

A Kirkus Prize finalist, Arinze Ifeakandu is the author of the debut short story collection, God's Children Are Little Broken Things (A Public Space Books), now longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Republic of Consciousness Prize. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and currently lives in Nigeria.

This is the 11th time we've given out The Story Prize Spotlight Award. The nine previous winners were: Drifting House by Krys Lee, Byzantium by Ben Stroud, Praying Drunk by Kyle Minor, Killing and Dying by Adrian Tomine, Him, Me, Muhammad Ali by Randa Jarrar, Subcortical by Lee Conell, Half Gods by Akil Kumarasamy, The Trojan War Museum by Ayşe Papatya Bucak, Inheritors by Asako Serizawaand, most recently, Born Into This by Adam Thompson.

You can find links to all eleven books, including Ifeakandu's, on Bookshop, in the list Winners of The Story Prize Spotlight Award.

We'll announce the winner of The Story Prize on March 15 at a private event, which we'll live stream, featuring readings by and interviews with the three finalists: Natural History by Andrea Barrett, Bliss Montage by Ling Ma, and Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty. And soon we'll post a long list of short story collections published in 2022.

The 2022/3 Finalists for The Story Prize Are Andrea Barrett, Ling Ma, and Morgan Talty

The Story Prize, now in its 19th year, is pleased to honor as its finalists three outstanding short story collections chosen from 119 submissions representing 79 different publishers or imprints. The range and quality of story collections published in 2022 were high, and, as always, it was difficult to narrow the list down to three books. This year's finalists are: 

• Natural History by Andrea Barrett (W.W. Norton)

• Bliss Montage by Ling Ma (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

• Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty (Tin House)

We will announce the winner of The Story Prize on the evening of Wednesday, March 15, at a private event featuring readings by and interviews with finalists Barrett, Ma, and Talty, as well as the announcement of the winner and acceptance of the $20,000 top prize and the engraved silver bowl that goes with it. The runners-up will each receive $5,000. We plan to live stream the event starting at 7:30 p.m. and will post a link before then and a video the next day. 

Story Prize Founder Julie Lindsey and Director Larry Dark selected the finalists. Three independent judges will determine the winner:

• Critic, writer, and editor Adam Dalva;
• Writer Danielle Evans; and
• Bookseller and podcaster Miwa Messer

In the weeks ahead, we'll announce this year's winner of The Story Prize Spotlight Award. We'll also publish a long list of other exceptional collections we read last year and information on how to watch the event.