When the three judges for The Story Prize vote for the winner of the award, they write citations for their top choices. This year's judges were writer and editor Elliott Holt, writer Maurice Carlos Ruffin, and bookseller Lucy Yu. 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 Ghost Pains by Jessi Jezewska Stevens:
“Few books luxuriate in the possibility of language as does Ghost Pains. And few authors take such apparent pleasure in the swirl of wordplay, anxiety, and loneliness as does Jessi Jezewska Stevens. The nervous, insecure narrators are a joy to meet—at an interview for a light journalism piece, at a catastrophically sad party, out in the world—because they represent the uncertainty of the reader, the longing for connection, and the impossibility of true comfort or rest. In these times, this is a book that meets the moment head-on and refuses to look away. That Stevens is a master of words elevates each tale to the level of high art.”
Photo: Beowulf Sheehan
