The Story Prize Longlist for Collections Published in 2025

In 2025, The Story Prize received as entries 114 books published by 72 different publishers or imprints. Unlike most other books awards, we release our longlist after we announce our shortlist of three finalists. These sixteen books, plus the three finalists and The Story Prize Spotlight Award winner (Trying to Be by John Haskell), combine to highlight 20 short story collections. Here are the books on our longlist: 

• The Words of Dr. L. by Karen E. Bender (Counterpoint)
• Exit Zero by Marie-Helene Bertino (FSG Originals)
• Whites By Mark Doten (Graywolf Press)
• A Love Story From the End of the World by Juhea Kim (Ecco)
• Save Me Stranger by Erika Krouse (Flatiron Books)
• Guatemalan Rhapsody by Jared Lemus (Ecco)
• Code Noir by Canisia Lubrin (Soft Skull)
• Make Your Way Home by Carrie R. Moore (Tin House)
• Open Up by Thomas Morris (The Unnamed Press)
• Are You Happy? by Lori Ostlund (Astra House)
• Waiting for the Long Night Moon by Amanda Peters (Catapult)
• Stag Dance by Torrey Peters  (Random House)
• Show Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random House)
• Small Scale Sinners by Mahreen Sohail (A Public Space)
• Portalmania by Debbie Urbanski (Simon & Schuster)
• The Pelican Child by Joy Williams (Alfred A. Knopf)

As we always say (and truly believe), anyone who writes and publishes a short story collection has overcome significant obstacles, has accomplished something noteworthy, and deserves enormous credit. As always, we received more worthwhile short story collections than we could possibly mention without making our longlist too long to be meaningful. We encourage readers to explore the full list of 2025 collections entered for The Story Prize on Bookshop.org.

We'll announce the 22nd winner of The Story Prize on March 31 at a private event featuring readings by and interviews with the three finalists—André Alexis, Lydia Millet, and Ayşegül Savaş. Before then, we'll provide a link to watch the program live or online in the days that follow the announcement of the winner.

The Story Prize Longlist for Story Collections Published in 2024

At The Story Prize we release a longlist of notable short story collections published in the previous year a few weeks after we announce our shortlist of three finalists. That list of 16 books, plus the three finalists and The Story Prize Spotlight Award winner (The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck), combine to highlight 20 short story collections. In 2024, The Story Prize received as entries 107 books published by 82 different publishers or imprints. Here are the books on our longlist: 

        •  Ghostroots by 'Pemi Aguda (W.W. Norton & Company) 
        •  How to Get Along Without Me by Kate Axelrod (Clash Books) 
        •  Ricky by Whitney Collins (Sarabande Books)
        •  Good Night, Sleep Tight by Brian Evenson (Coffee House Press)
        •  Bugsy by Rafael Frumkin (Simon & Schuster)
        •  The Best That You Can You Do by Amina Gautier (Soft Skull)
        •  The Body Farm by Abby Geni (Counterpoint Press)
        •  Practice for Becoming a Ghost by Patrick Thomas Henry (Susquehanna
        Univ. Press)
        •  The Goodbye Process by Mary Jones (Zibby Books)
        •  How It Works Out by Myriam Lacroix (The Overlook Press)
        •  Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima (Tor)
        •  Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart by Genarose Nethercott (Vintage Books)
        •  How to Make Your Mother Cry by Sejal Shah (West Virginia Univ. Press)
        •  Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte (William Morrow)
        •  Mystery Lights by Lena Valencia (Tin House)
        •  Beautiful Days by Zach Williams (Doubleday)

Altogether, we received more worthwhile books than we could possibly mention without making our longlist a too-long-list, and it was difficult to narrow down the choices. It takes us a while to accomplish this because we do a fair amount of rereading. As always, we believe that anyone who writes and publishes a short story collection has overcome difficult obstacles, has accomplished something significant, and deserves enormous credit.  

We'll announce the 21st winner of The Story Prize on March 25 at a private event featuring readings by and interviews with the three finalists—Fiona McFarlane, Ruben ReyesJr., and Jessi Jezewska Stevens. Before then, we'll provide a link to watch the program live or online in the days that follow the announcement of the winner.

The Story Prize Longlist for Story Collections Published in 2023

At The Story Prize, we announce our shortlist of three finalists first—as we did a few weeks ago—then release our longlist later. The three finalists, The Story Prize Spotlight Award winner (which we recently announced), and the longlist combine to highlight 20 books. Here are the books published in 2023 that we've chosen:

        •  Temple Folk by Aaliyah Bilal (Simon & Schuster)
        •  Witness by Jamel Brinkley (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
        •  I Meant It Once by Kate Doyle (Algonquin Books)
        •  The Faraway World by Patricia Engle (Avid Reader Press)
        •  Elsewhere by Yan Ge (Scribner)
        •  After the Funeral by Tessa Hadley (Alfred A. Knopf)
        •  Games and Rituals by Katherine Heiny (Alfred A. Knopf)
        •  The Best Possible Experience by Nishanth Injam (Pantheon)
        •  So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan (Grove Press)
        •  Disruptions by Steven Millhauser (Alfred A. Knopf)
        •  I Am My Country by Kenan Orhan (Random House)
        •  The Disappeared by Andrew Porter (Alfred A. Knopf)
        •  This Is Salvaged by Vauhini Vara (W.W. Norton)
        •  The People Who Report More Stress by Alejandro Varela (Astra House)
        •  Dearborn by Ghassan Zeineddine (Tin House)
        •  The Sorrows of Others by Ada Zhang (A Public Space)

Last year, The Story Prize received 113 books published by 84 different publishers or imprints. We read more worthwhile short story collections than is practical to include on our longlist, and it was very difficult to narrow down the choices. (That's why we take extra time to do some rereading before releasing our list.) As always, we believe that every writer who writes and publishes a short story collection has accomplished something significant and deserves a ton of credit. 

We've put together a Bookshop list of all the story collections that we received in 2023, many more worth reading than can fit on our longlist. We'll announce the 20th winner of The Story Prize on March 26 at a private event featuring readings by and interviews with the three finalists—Yiyun Li, Bennett Sims, and Paul Yoon. Before then, we'll provide links to watch the program live or online in the days that follow the announcement of the winner.

The Story Prize Longlist for Story Collections Published in 2022

In 2022, The Story Prize received 119 books published by 79 publishers or imprints. Every writer who published a short story collection last year accomplished something significant and deserves a lot of credit. 

The Story Prize announces its shortlist of three finalists first—as we did a few weeks ago—then releases its longlist later. The three finalists, The Story Prize Spotlight Award winner, and the longlist combine to highlight twenty books. Here's the list:

• How Strange a Season by Megan Mayhew Bergman (Scribner)
• Seeking Fortune Elsewhere by Sindya Bhanoo (Catapult)
• Pretend It's My Body by Luke Dani Blue (The Feminist Press)
• Tomorrow in Shanghai by May-Lee Chai (Blair)
• Rainbow Rainbow by Lydia Conklin (Catapult)
• If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Stories From the Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana (Scribner)
• The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land by Omer Friedlander (Random House)
• A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times by Meron Hadero (Restless Books)
• Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho (Viking)
• Antipodes by Holly Goddard Jones (University of Iowa Press)
• The Haunting of Hajji Hotak by Jamil Jan Kochai (Viking)
• The Partition by Don Lee (Akashic Press)
• Two Nurses Smoking by David Means (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• The Consequences by Manuel Muñoz (Graywolf Press)
• Nobody Gets Out Alive by Leigh Newman (Scribner)

We've put together a Bookshop list of story collections that we received in 2022, many of them worth reading, even beyond this list. We'll announce the 19th winner of The Story Prize on March 15 at a private event featuring readings by and interviews with the three finalists—Andrea Barrett, Ling Ma, and Morgan Talty. Before then, we'll provide links to watch the program live or online in the days that follow.

The Story Prize Longlist for Story Collections Published in 2021

Writing, assembling, and publishing a short story collection takes years of creative effort and remarkable perseverance. Every writer who published a collection in 2021 truly accomplished something significant and deserves an enormous amount of credit. Last year, The Story Prize received as entries 119 books published by 90 publishers or imprints. We choose the shortlist of three finalists first, then release our longlist a few weeks later. The three finalists, The Story Prize Spotlight Award winner, and the longlist combined highlight 20 books. Here then is our longlist of 16 outstanding short story collections (links are to Bookshop):

You Never Get It Back by Cara Blue Adams (University of Iowa Press)

The Ghost Variations by Kevin Brockmeier (Pantheon)

Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen (Mariner)

Skinship by Yoon Choi (Alfred A. Knopf)

Gordo by Jaime Cortez (Black Cat)

Life Among the Terranauts by Caitlin Horrocks (Little, Brown)

Love Like Water, Love Like Fire by Mikhail Iossel (Bellevue Literary Press)

My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson (Henry Holt)

The Souvenir Museum by Elizabeth McCracken (Ecco Press)

Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz (Grove Press)

The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You by Maurice Carlos Ruffin (One World)

King of the Animals by Josh Russell (Louisiana State University Press)

American Estrangement by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh (W.W. Norton)

Are You Enjoying? by Mira Sethi (Alfred A. Knopf)

Attrib. by Eley Williams (Anchor Books)

Monster in the Middle by Tiphanie Yanique (Riverhead Books)

We've posted a Bookshop list of all the story collections that we received as entries in 2021. It was a great year for short story collections, and more than 20 other books could easily have made this list. It's always difficult to narrow the field down, and it seems to get harder every year. 

We also want to recognize several excellent books by accomplished short story writers published in 2021: The Glassy Burning, Floor of Hell by Brian Evenson, Big Dark Hole by Jeffrey Ford, The Uncollected Stories of Allan Gurganus, The (Other) You by Joyce Carol Oates, Prayer for the Living by Ben Okri, Excuse Me While I Disappear by Joanna Scott, Look for Me and I'll Be Gone by John Edgar Wideman, and Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket by Hilma Wolitzer. 

Two other collections published in 2021 that weren't eligible for The Story Prize are also worth noting: Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So, who sadly died before his acclaimed debut collection was published, and Festival Days by Jo Ann Beard, a remarkable hybrid that includes a mix of short stories and essays. 

We'll announce the 18th winner of The Story Prize on April 13 at a private event that we'll livestream (details to come), featuring readings by and interviews with the three finalists—Lily King, J. Robert Lennon, and Brandon Taylor—followed by the announcement of the winner.