Video of The Story Prize Event: Yiyun Li, Bennett Sims, and Paul Yoon (winner)—plus 20th Anniversary Highlights

Here's the edited video of The Story Prize event held on March 26, 2024. It begins with highlights from the first 19 years of the award.

What The Story Prize Judges Had to Say About The Hive and the Honey by Story Prize Winner Paul Yoon

photo © Beowulf Sheehan

When the three judges for The Story Prize make their choices, they write citations for their top choices. This year's judges were critic and writer Merve Emre, librarian Allison Escoto, and writer Tania James. 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 The Hive and the Honey by Yiyun Li: 

“The seven stories in The Hive and the Honey are uncanny tales of loss and longing. A mother loses a child. A child loses a father. One man loses his home. Another loses his sense of time. Each loss is experienced by the character as a private or secluded grief, but Paul Yoon excavates grief's historic dimensions, revealing the long-lived aftershocks of the Korean War. The genius of the collection lies in its steadiness of style—Yoon's prose is quiet and fine and, at times, painfully precise—and its variety of genre. Domestic realism sits alongside folk tales, ghost stories, and imperial histories. The present is haunted by the past, and the past is violently and beautifully summoned in the present.” 

“The Hive and The Honey is a collection of astonishing breadth, offering a panoramic portrait of Korean diaspora, of lives rescued from the margins of history. Here we encounter a samurai tasked with protecting an orphan boy; a haunted Korean settlement in Far East Russia; men and women fleeing brutal pasts, seeking connection or safety. And yet these characters are more elusive than can be summarized. They reveal themselves most acutely through intimate gestures: a girl inviting a bee to her teacup, a kid licking at the blood from his own broken nose, a man coming home from war with vegetable seeds tucked into his chest pocket. Such moments infuse the ordinary with lasting wonder and could only be achieved by a writer as patient, curious, and masterful as Paul Yoon.”

The 20th Winner of The Story Prize Is The Hive and the Honey by Paul Yoon!

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.

Presenting the 20th Trio of Finalists for The Story Prize: Yiyun Li, Bennett Sims, and Paul Yoon

Now in its 20th year, The Story Prize is pleased to honor as its finalists three outstanding short story collections chosen from 113 submissions representing 84 different publishers or imprints. The range of story collections published in 2022 was broad and the quality was high, and it was difficult to narrow the list down to three books, as it usually is. 

This year's finalists are: 

• Wednesday's Child by Yiyun Li (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

• Other Minds and Other Strories by Bennett Sims (Two Dollar Radio)

• The Hive and the Honey by Paul Yoon (Marysue Rucci Books)

Yiyun Li was also a finalist in 2011. We will announce the winner of The Story Prize on the evening of Tuesday, March 26, at a private event featuring readings by and interviews with finalists Li, Sims, and Yoon, 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 and author Merve Emre;
• Librarian Allison Escoto; and
• Writer Tania James

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. And you can find a list of the story collections we received in 2023 on Bookshop.org.