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| photo © Beowulf Sheehan |
As announced at a private event that was broadcast live, the winner of The Story Prize for books published in 2023 is Paul Yoon for The Hive and the Honey (Marysue Rucci Books). The other finalists were Yiyun Li for Wednesday’s Child (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) and Bennett Sims for Other Minds and Other Stories (Two Dollar Radio). The Story Prize’s $20,000 top prize is among the largest first-prize amounts of any annual U.S. book award for fiction. As runners-up, Li and Sims each received $5,000. The evening began with the showing of a short video featuring highlights from the first 19 years of the award.
The Hive and the Honey, is Yoon’s fifth book of fiction and his third short story collection. The judges cited the book for its widely varied settings, skillful prose, profundity, and restrained but poignantly evocative tone
Director Larry Dark and Founder Julie Lindsey selected the three finalists for The Story Prize, now in its 20th year, from among 113 short story collections published in 2023, representing 84 different publishers or imprints. Three judges—critic and writer Merve Emre; librarian Allison Escoto, and writer Tania James—determined the winner from among the three books chosen as finalists.
