Sana Krasikov, Young Lioness and "Winner"

As I learned via Twitter (@RonHogan), Sana Krasikov's much lauded short story collection, One More Year, is among the finalists for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award. It's up against four novels: Jon Fasman's The Geographer's Library, Rivka Galchen's Atmospheric Disturbances, Zachary Mason's The Lost Books of the Odyssey, and Salvatore Scibona's The End, which was also a National Book Awards finalist. 

To return to something I've griped about before, the Young Lions Fiction Award Web page still had last year's finalists up—hours after its announcement went out. Come on, Young Lions, you have to coordinate your site with your announcement! Get on the stick, Ethan Hawke!

On the plus side, the Young Lions usually don't go for the obvious choices. I always find out about books I hadn't heard of before when they "announce" their finalists. And two of the books this year are from small presses, which is always a plus. Graywolf is Scibona's publisher and Starcherone Press is Mason's. 

One odd thing about the paperback cover of Krasikov's book is that it proclaims her a "winner" of the National Book Awards' 5 Under 35, which isn't an award, it's an event—five past NBA finalists or winners choose a writer under 35 to read from her or his work. Francine Prose chose One More Year. It is an honor and a mark of distinction, but couldn't the faux seal just have said "A National Book Award 5 Under 35 Selection" or something accurate like that? The paperback isn't out until August, so maybe they'll trumpet the Young Lions selection instead, especially if Krasikov wins. I'm pulling for her, but my money's on Galchen.

By the way, speaking of awkward segues, the Story Prize event is two weeks from tonight, on March 4 at the New School. Our lions of varying ages are (of course) Jhumpa Lahiri, Joe Meno, and Tobias Wolff. They'll read from and discuss their work onstage before we announce the winner. Tickets are still available.

Small Presses, Big Importance

Small presses, including university presses, deserve a lot of credit for supporting short fiction. Nearly half the books we receive as entries for The Story Prize come from them, and every year we read a lot of quality work outside of commercial publishing.

Some small press publishers are extensions of literary magazines, such as McSweeney's, Open City, and Tin House. Others are independent publishers, including Beacon Press, FC2, Graywolf, Milkweed Editions, Sarabande Books, and Small Beer Press. And then there are the university presses, some of which publish story collections every year as part of awards they sponsor. Among these are the University of Georgia Press (Flannery O'Conner Prize), University of Pittsburgh Press (Drue Heinz Literature Prize), and University of Iowa Press (John Simmons and Iowa Short Fiction Awards). Other university presses--including Carnegie-Mellon, LSU Press , and Ohio University/Swallow Press--simply publish a fair amount of short fiction.

Small presses often launch careers, sometimes resuscitate them, and also can sustain them. Having smaller organizations allows editors to take chances that commercial publishers most likely wouldn't. As a result, small presses publish more experimental fiction, and they can choose work primarily on the merits without necessarily having to calculate how promotable a book or author is. On the other hand, small presses don't have nearly the means to publicize work that big commercial publishers have.

In any event, here's a list of a dozen outstanding short story collections that we've read for The Story Prize:

The Smallest People Alive by Keith Banner (Carnegie Mellon)
Damned If I Do by Percival Everett (Graywolf)
The Animal Girl by John Fulton (LSU)
Human Resources by Josh Goldfaden (Tin House)
Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link (Small Beer Press)
Teach the Free Man by Peter Nathaniel Malae (Ohio University/Swallow Press)
Michael Martone by Michael Martone (FC2)
Mothers & Other Monsters by Maureen McHugh (Small Beer Press)
Other Electricities by Ander Monson (Sarabande Books)
Refresh Refresh by Benjamin Percy (Graywolf)
Women in the Grove by Paula W. Peterson (Beacon Press)
The First Hurt by Rachel Sherman (Open City)

A good source of information on small and university press publishers is the Council of Literary Magazines and Press (CLMP). These publishers provide vital support to the short story, so it's well worth supporting them.