Meet the Judges for The Story Prize: Marie du Vaure, John Freeman, Jayne Anne Phillips

We're proud to announce that this year's judges for The Story Prize are bookseller Marie du Vaure, Granta editor John Freeman, and author Jayne Anne Phillips. We've had great groups of judges in the past*, and this year's judges, I believe, extend this tradition.

Our formula is simple. Each year we have one writer as a judge. We alternate between a bookseller and a librarian. And the third judge is from another category—editors, critics, bloggers, etc. What this has done for us, I believe, is connect us more closely to the community that supports short story collections.

Here's how the process works: Julie Lindsey, Founder of The Story Prize, and I read all of the books entered for The Story Prize and choose three as finalists in early January. We send copies of each to the judges as soon as we've confirmed our choices. The judges then have about six weeks to read the books and inform me of their first and second choices. In the event each judge favors a different book (which hasn't happened yet), we use the second choice as a tie-breaker.

The judges' participation validates our efforts and adds another dimension to The Story Prize. And we appreciate the willingness of these very busy and accomplished people to be part of our efforts to promote short fiction.

*Past judges of The Story Prize
2009/10 Author A.M. Homes, librarian Bill Kelly, and blogger Carolyn Kellogg
2008/9 Editor/author Daniel Menaker, bookseller Rick Simonson, and author/One Story editor Hannah Tinti

2007/8 Author/critic David Gates, librarian Patricia Groh, and author/editor Meghan O'Rourke
2006/7 Author Edwidge Danticat, blogger Ron Hogan, and bookseller Mitchell Kaplan
2005/6 Author Andrea Barrett, librarian Nancy Pearl, and critic James Wood
2004/5 Author Dan Chaon, bookseller Ann Christophersen, and A Public Space editor Brigid Hughes

Two Short Story Collections Are Finalists for the National Book Awards

Here's something I don't get tired of: More good news about short story collections. The National Book Awards announced their fiction finalists yesterday, and two of the five are short story collections: Bonnie Jo Campbell's American Salavage and Daniyal Mueunuddin's In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. Readers of this blog (who are legion) may remember that in a previous post about summer reading, I pointed out that author and NPR commentator Alan Cheuse had recommended Muenuddin's collection. Well, guess what, he'd also recommended Jayne Anne Phillips' evocative novel* Lark and Termite, which is another finalist for the National Book Awards. While Cheuse is only one of the five fiction judges, in retrospect his summer picks provided a partial preview of the NBA finalists.

As I said in that post, I can highly recommend Muenuddin's excellent collection. Yesterday, Bonnie Jo Campbell's book immediately jumped to the top of my pile and, half way through, I'd have to say it's a brilliant choice by the NBA judges. It's especially impressive because of the huge number of fiction entries (236) they read this year. One of the best things a book award can do is to shine the spotlight on deserving and underappreciated books, authors, and publishers. This group of judges obviously didn't cut any corners and gave their full attention to a university press book (Wayne State) that didn't get widespread attention. Kudos to them. That's why Julie and I make sure we read everything we get. You never know where you'll find a gem.

By the way, one of the other NBA judges is author Lydia Millet, who has a short story collection, Love in Infant Monkeys, just out from indy publisher Softskull Press. I wouldn't be surprised if she were a big advocate of Campbell's collection, but that's just a guess.

* Full disclosure, Jayne Anne is a colleague of my wife's at Rutgers-Newark, and a friend of ours.