Thursday, March 16, 2023

What The Story Prize Judges Had to Say About Natural History by Andrea Barrett

Photo © Beowulf Sheehan

When the three judges for The Story Prize make their choices, they provide citations for the books. This year's judges were critic, writer, and editor Adam Dalva, writer Danielle Evans, and bookseller and podcaster Miwa Messer. 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 Natural History by Andrea Barrett:
“Andrea Barrett’s Natural History moves brilliantly through time and memory, building a complicated and compelling family tree. The stories in this collection are mesmerizing in their ability to balance illumination of the unknown or forgotten—lingering in lost histories, small moments of scientific wonder, and the private secrets of relationships—with a reverence for the unknowable, and a willingness to let stories or characters hold on to their mystery when it serves them.”

Ling Ma's Bliss Montage is the 19th Winner of The Story Prize!

photo © Beowulf Sheehan
The winner of The Story Prize for books published in 2022 is Bliss Montage (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) by Ling Ma. 

We announced Ma as the 19th winner of the prize after an evening of readings by and interviews with the three finalists for The Story Prize, Andrea Barrett for Natural History (W.W. Norton & Co.) and Morgan Talty for Night of the Living Rez, in addition to Ma.
 
The Story Prize’s $20,000 top prize is among the largest first-prize amounts of any annual U.S. book award for fiction. Ma also received an engraved silver bowl, which The Story Prize presents to all winners. As runners-up, Barrett and Talty each received $5,000.

Director Larry Dark and Founder Julie Lindsey selected the three finalists for The Story Prize, now in its 19th year, from among 119 books entered in 2022, representing 79 different publishers or imprints. Three judges—critic, author, and editor Adam Dalva; author Danielle Evans, and bookseller and podcaster Miwa Messer—determined the winner from among the three books chosen as finalists. 

Buy Bliss Montage, Natural History, Night of the LIving Rez other story collections published in 2022 from your local bookseller or on Bookshop.

Congratulations to Ling Ma and to Farrar, Straus and Giroux! 

Wednesday, March 8, 2023

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.

Wednesday, February 15, 2023

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.

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

God's Children Are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu Wins The Story Prize Spotlight Award

Beyond naming three finalists each year, we also present The Story Prize Spotlight Award to a collection of exceptional merit. Selected books can be promising works by first-time authors, collections in alternative formats, or works that demonstrate an unusual perspective on the writer's craft. The award includes a prize of $1,000. 

We're pleased to announce that the winner for books published in 2022 is God's Little Children Are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu, published by A Public Space Books. These nine evocative and immersive stories explore queer lives and loves amid an atmosphere of cultural intolerance. 

A Kirkus Prize finalist, Arinze Ifeakandu is the author of the debut short story collection, God's Children Are Little Broken Things (A Public Space Books), now longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Republic of Consciousness Prize. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and currently lives in Nigeria.

This is the 11th time we've given out The Story Prize Spotlight Award. The nine previous winners were: Drifting House by Krys Lee, Byzantium by Ben Stroud, Praying Drunk by Kyle Minor, Killing and Dying by Adrian Tomine, Him, Me, Muhammad Ali by Randa Jarrar, Subcortical by Lee Conell, Half Gods by Akil Kumarasamy, The Trojan War Museum by Ayşe Papatya Bucak, Inheritors by Asako Serizawaand, most recently, Born Into This by Adam Thompson.

You can find links to all eleven books, including Ifeakandu's, on Bookshop, in the list Winners of The Story Prize Spotlight Award.

We'll announce the winner of The Story Prize on March 15 at a private event, which we'll live stream, featuring readings by and interviews with the three finalistsNatural History by Andrea Barrett, Bliss Montage by Ling Ma, and Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty. And soon we'll post a long list of short story collections published in 2022.

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

The 2022/3 Finalists for The Story Prize Are Andrea Barrett, Ling Ma, and Morgan Talty

The Story Prize, now in its 19th year, is pleased to honor as its finalists three outstanding short story collections chosen from 119 submissions representing 79 different publishers or imprints. The range and quality of story collections published in 2022 were high, and, as always, it was difficult to narrow the list down to three books. This year's finalists are: 

 Natural History by Andrea Barrett (W.W. Norton)

 Bliss Montage by Ling Ma (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

 Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty (Tin House)


We will announce the winner of The Story Prize on the evening of Wednesday, March 15, at a private event featuring readings by and interviews with finalists Barrett, Ma, and Talty, 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, writer, and editor Adam Dalva;
  • Writer Danielle Evans; and
  • Bookseller and podcaster Miwa Messer

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.



Thursday, October 27, 2022

Announcing This Year's Judges for The Story Prize: Adam Dalva, Danielle Evans, and Miwa Messer

The three judges for The Story Prize have the task of choosing the winner from among the three short story collections we choose as finalists. We're pleased to announce this year's judges, Adam Dalva, Danielle Evans, and Miwa Messer.

Adam Dalva’s writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, and The Guardian. He is the Senior Fiction Editor of Guernica Magazine. He also serves on the board of the National Book Critics Circle, is the books editor of Words Without Borders, and is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Rutgers University.

Danielle Evans is the author of the story collections The Office of Historical Corrections, which was a finalist for The Story Prize, and Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self. Her books have won the PEN America Robert W. Bingham Prize, the Hurston-Wright award for fiction, and the Patterson Prize for Fiction. She is the 2021 winner of The New Literary Project Joyce Carol Oates Prize, a 2020 National Endowment for the Arts fellow, and a 2011 National Book Foundation 5 under 35 honoree. Her stories have been included in various magazines and anthologies, including four volumes of The Best American Short Stories. She is an Associate Professor in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.

Miwa Messer is the creator, producer, and host of Barnes & Noble’s Poured Over, a podcast for readers who pore over details, obsess over sentences and ideas and stories and characters, as well as for readers who ask a lot of questions, just like her, a career bookseller who’s always reading.

We'll announce the three finalists in January and the winner at an event on March 15 at which the three writers chosen as finalists will read from and discuss their work. Details to come!