The 2024/25 Story Prize Finalists Are André Alexis, Lydia Millet, and Ayşegül Savaş

The Story Prize, now in its 22nd year, is pleased to honor as its finalists three outstanding short story collections chosen from 114 submissions representing 72 different publishers or imprints. 

• Other Worlds by André Alexis (FSG Originals)
• Atavists by Lydia Millet (W.W. Norton)
• Long Distance by Ayşegül Savaş (Bloomsbury)

Other Worlds employs fanciful and formally inventive narratives to deftly explore issues of culture, race, sex, and class. Atavists charts a constellation of characters in a Los Angeles-area town, delineating contemporary anxieties, ambitions, and mores with a cool but sympathetic eye. The elegant stories in Long Distance—set in locales such as Paris, Rome, Istanbul, and Marseilles—subtly and poignantly depict the inner lives of characters struggling with displacement despite having chosen it.

We'll announce the winner of The Story Prize on the evening of Tuesday, March 31, at a private event featuring readings by and interviews with finalists Alexis, Millet, and Savaş. The winner will receive the top prize of $20,000 and an engraved silver bowl. The runners-up will each receive $5,000. We will live-stream the event starting at 7:30 p.m. and will post a link before then and the final video in the days that follow. 

Story Prize Founder Julie Lindsey and Director Larry Dark selected the finalists. These three independent judges will determine the winner:

• Writer and copyeditor Benjamin Dreyer;
• Writer and past Story Prize winner Ling Ma; and
• Librarian Stephen Sposato.

In the weeks ahead, we'll announce this year's winner of The Story Prize Spotlight Award. We'll also publish a longlist of other exceptional collections we read last year. You can find a complete list of the story collections we received in 2025 on Bookshop.org.