The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck Is The Story Prize Spotlight Award Winner

In addition to 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 2024 is The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck, published by Viking. These twelve inventive stories, perfectly executed, stood out from the pack. Shattuck takes an original approach to connecting the stories—all set in New England and ranging in time from 1796 to the present—ordering them according to a traditional eighteenth-century rhyme scheme, with the first and last stories framing five other matched pairs and the collection as a whole.

Ben Shattuck is the author of Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau, which was a New Yorker Best Book of 2022, a Wall Street Journal Best Book of Spring, a New York Times Best Book of Summer, a New England Indie Bestseller, and was nominated for the Massachusetts Book Award. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and winner of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers and a Pushcart Prize. He lives with his wife and daughter on the coast of Massachusetts, where he owns and runs the oldest general store in America, built in 1793. He is also the director and founder of the Cuttyhunk Island Writers’ Residency.

© Andreas Burgess

 This is the 13th time we've given out The Story Prize Spotlight Award. The 12 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, Born Into This by Adam Thompson, God's Children Are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu and, most recently, The Goth House Experiment by SJ Sindu. 

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

We'll announce the winner of The Story Prize on March 25 at a private event, which we'll live stream, featuring readings by and interviews with the three finalists: Highway Thirteen by Fiona McFarlane, There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven by Ruben Reyes Jr., and Ghost Pains by Jessi Jezewska Stevens. And soon we'll post a long list of short story collections published in 2024.