Video of The Story Prize Event: winner Fiona McFarlane and finalists Ruben Reyes Jr. and Jessi Jezewska Stevens

Here's the video of The Story Prize event held on March 25, 2025. Apologies to those who attempted to watch the live stream. Technical difficulties at the venue caused insurmountable problems.

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.

Video of The Story Prize event: Andrea Barrett, Ling Ma (winner), and Morgan Talty

 Here's the edited video of The Story Prize event held on March 15. 

Live-Stream The Story Prize Award Event on March 15 at 7:30 p.m.

The Story Prize event is just a week away. Although we're having a private award night this year, we're going to live-stream it on YouTube. Here's the link.

What you'll see and hear is the three finalists for The Story Prize for books published in 2022—Andrea Barrett for Natural History (W.W. Norton), Ling Ma for Bliss Montage (FSG), and Morgan Talty for Night of the Living Rez (Tin House)—read from and discuss their short story collections before we announce the 19th winner of The Story Prize and present that writer with an engraved silver bowl and the top prize of $20,000. The other two finalists will each take home $5,000.

Finalists Andrea Barrett, Ling Ma, and MorganTalty

If you miss the live-stream, you'll still be able to watch the video on our website and on YouTube in the days that follow. You can find videos of past events under the WINNERS menu on our home page or on YouTube.

Video of The Story Prize event: Lily King, J. Robert Lennon, and Brandon Taylor (winner)

Here's the edited video of The Story Prize event held on April 13:

 

Live-Stream The Story Prize Award Event on April 13 at 7:30 p.m.

We're having a private award night this year instead of the larger public events we held at The New School for 15 years (before the novel coronavirus came along). And because the event is invitation only, we're planning to live-stream it on YouTube on Wednesday night.

Here's the link.

What you'll see and hear is the three finalists for The Story Prize for books published in 2021—Lily King, J. Robert Lennon, and Brandon Taylor—read from and discuss their short story collections before we announce the winner and present that writer with an engraved silver bowl and the top prize of $20,000. The other two honorees won't walk away empty handed; they each take home $5,000.

Lily King, J. Robert Lennon, and Brandon Taylor

Given the disruptive nature of the pandemic, if technical difficulties interfere with the live-stream, you'll still be able to watch the video on our website and on YouTube the next day. And speaking of which, you can find videos of past events under the WINNERS menu on our home page.

Video of The Story Prize Event: Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Danielle Evans, and Deesha Philyaw (winner)

Because of the pandemic, this year's Story Prize event was prerecorded and posted on YouTube on March 10, 2021. We hope and expect to hold a live event in 2022. Here's the video featuring the three finalists—Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Danielle Evans, and winner Deesha Philyaw—reading from and discussing their work:

In Response to the Pandemic, The Story Prize Is Waiving Entry Fees for 2020

Because of the coronavirus pandemic and its financial impact on writers and publishers, for 2020, The Story Prize is waiving its $75 entry fee. In addition, if conditions are such that it isn’t possible to send printed books, we will accept e-book only submissions. We do, however, reserve the right to not accept particular book entries.

Entry fees and revenue from ticket sales to The Story Prize event, which we split with our partner The New School Creative Writing Program, are our only sources of revenue to offset the costs of operating the award. They cover just a small but important portion of the funding for The Story Prize, all of which the Chisholm Foundation generously provides.

This sacrifice on our part pales in comparison to the efforts of first responders and essential workers—and to the illness and terrible losses many have suffered. We hope for better times ahead.

The mission of The Story Prize remains to encourage and promote the publication and reading of short story collections. Of course, we highly recommend the 16 short story collections we've honored as winners of The Story Prize and the 32 books we've named as finalists. We encourage you to support your local bookseller if you decide to purchase any of these books. Thanks to The New School Creative Writing Program, you can view on YouTube at no cost video of past events, including readings by and interviews with most of the writers we've been fortunate to honor.

Video of The Story Prize Event: Edwidge Danticat (winner), Kali Fajardo-Anstine, and Zadie Smith

Here's the video of The Story Prize event, featuring the three finalists—Edwidge Danticat (the winner), Kali Fajardo-Anstine, and Zadie Smith—reading from and discussing their work:

Video of The Story Prize Event: Jamel Brinkley, Deborah Eisenberg, and Lauren Groff (the Winner)

A Few Highlights from Past Story Prize Events

Here's a short highlight reel we've put together to promote The Story Prize event on Feb. 28 at The New School. That night, authors Daniel Alarcón, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Elizabeth Strout will read from and discuss their work onstage before we announce the winner. (You can order tickets here.)

This video includes excerpts from George Saunders, Adam Johnson, Lorrie Moore, and Adam Johnson. Sometime soon, we hope to create a longer video featuring more highlights of author readings and interviews from past Story Prize events.

Thanks to the Creative Writing Program at The New School, which co-sponsors our award events and arranges to have them recorded each year.

Video: The Story Prize Event on March 8 at The New School with Finalists Anna Noyes and Helen Maryles Shankman and Winner Rick Bass

Here's the video of The Story Prize event on March 8 at The New School. That night, the three finalists—Rick Bass, Anna Noyes, and Helen Maryles Shankman—read from and discussed their work on-stage. And at the culmination of the event, we announced the winner for books published in 2016: Rick Bass's For a Little While.

Video: The Story Prize Event on March 2 at The New School with Finalists Charles Baxter and Colum McCann and Winner Adam Johnson

Here's the video of The Story Prize event on March 2 at The New School. That night, the three finalists—Charles Baxter, Adam Johnson, and Colum McCann—read from and discussed their work on-stage. And at the culmination of the event, we announced the winner for books published in 2015: Adam Johnson's Fortune Smiles. 

Video: The Story Prize Event on March 4 at The New School with Francesca Marciano, Elizabeth McCracken, and Lorrie Moore

In case you missed The Story Prize event on March 4 at The New School, here's the video. That night, the three finalists—Francesca Marciano, Elizabeth McCracken, and Lorrie Moore—read from and discussed their work on-stage. And at the culmination of the event, we announced the winner for books published in 2014: Elizabeth McCracken's Thunderstruck. 

Video: The Story Prize Event on March 5, Andrea Barrett, Rebecca Lee, and George Saunders

In case you missed The Story Prize event on March 5 at The New School, here's the video. That night, the three finalists—Andrea Barrett, Rebecca Lee, and George Saunders—read from and discussed their work on-stage. And at the culmination of the event, we announced the winner for books published in 2013: George Saunders' Tenth of December. 

Video: The Story Prize Event on March 13, Dan Chaon, Junot Diaz, Claire Vaye Watkins

In case you missed it, here's video of The Story Prize event on March 13, at which we announced the winner for books published in 2012: Claire Vaye Watkins' Battleborn.

Video of the March 21 Story Prize event at The New School

 In case you missed it:

Webcast: The Story Prize Awards Ceremony 2011 | The New School

The video for The Story Prize event on March 2 is up on The New School's YouTube page and will soon be on FORA.tv. The director of The New School's graduate writing program, Robert Polito, introduces the evening. The three finalists—Anthony Doerr, Yiyun Li, and Suzanne Rivecca—read from their work and discuss it onstage with the director of The Story Prize, Larry Dark. The event culminates with the announcement of the winner, Anthony Doerr for Memory Wall, by the founder of The Story Prize, Julie Lindsey.

The Webcast of Last Week's Story Prize Event

The video of The Story Prize event, which took place a week ago today, is up on The New School's YouTube page. FORA.tv will also post it, probably with some technical enhancements.

Margaret Atwood's Speech to the Whiting Writers' Award Winners

Thanks to David Varno, who posted this on Critical Mass, the National Book Critics' blog, here's a video of Margaret Atwood's speech to the Whiting Writers' Award winners on Oct. 28.

Untitled from Sonnet Media on Vimeo.