The Story Prize is an annual book award honoring the author of an outstanding collection of short fiction with a $20,000 cash award. Each of two runners-up will receive $5,000. Eligible books must be written in English and first published in the United States during a calendar year.
The Director of the Story Prize (2009 Larry Dark), and an Advisory Board member (Julie Lindsey for the 2008 award choice) select three finalists from among the books entered by publishers, authors or agents.
The finalists are announced early in January each year. The winner is presented with the award at a ceremony in late March or early February
Story Book Prize Blogspot | Award website | Winners 2004 to present.
The Story Prize Winner & Finalists - 2009
Winner: In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
In other Rooms, Other WondersIn Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin (W. W. Norton)—These eight connected stories set in southern Pakistan bring to life the world of an aging feudal landlord, his Western educated daughters, desperate and conniving servants, farm workers, corrupt judges, politicians, aristocrats, and foreigners. Throughout, the writing is elegant and self-assured, and deeply insightful without being judgmental. Offical web site | Buy this book
Daniel MueenuddinDaniyal Mueenuddin was brought up in Lahore, Pakistan, and Elroy, Wisconsin. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Yale Law School. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Zoetrope, and The Best American Short Stories 2008 selected by Salman Rushdie, and will appear in PEN/O.Henry Prize Stories 2010. For a number of years he practiced law in New York. He lives in London and on a farm in Pakistan's southern Punjab.
Finalist: Drift by Victoria Patterson
DriftDrift by Victoria Patterson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)—The wealthy enclave of Newport Beach, California, is the setting for thirteen stories, told with grace and compassion, that focus on characters who live on the margins, including waiters, waitresses, confused children of divorce, and a beautiful, brain-damaged skateboarder. Official web site | Buy this book
Victoria PattersonVictoria Patterson grew up in Newport Beach and received her MFA from UC Riverside. Her short fiction has appeared in the Santa Monica Review, Florida Review, and Snake-Nation Review, among other publications. She lives with her family in South Pasadena, California.
Finalist: Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower
Everything Ravaged, Everything BurnedEverything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)—Ambivalence, wrong-thinking, and confusion are the engines that drive these nine insightful, witty stories that culminate in a tale about marauding Vikings who turn out to be just like the misguided, contemporary American characters in the book. Official web site | Buy this book
Wells TowerWells Tower's short stories and journalism have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, McSweeney's, The Paris Review, The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, The Washington Post Magazine, and elsewhere. He received two Pushcart Prizes and the Plimpton Prize from The Paris Review. He divides his time between Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Brooklyn, New York.
Story Prize Winners and Finalists 2004 to present
2008
Winner
Tobias Wolff for Our Story Begins
Finalists
Jhumpa Lahiri for Unaccustomed Earth
Joe Meno for Demons in the Spring
2007
Winner
Jim Shepard for Like You'd Understand, Anyway
Finalists
Tessa Hadley for Sunstroke and Other Stories
Vincent Lam for Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures
2006
Winner
Mary Gordon for The Stories of Mary Gordon
Finalists
Rick Bass for The Lives of Rocks
George Saunders for In Persuasion Nation
2005
Winner
Patrick O'Keeffe The Hill Road
Finalists
Jim Harrison for The Summer He Didn't Die
Maureen McHugh for Mothers & Other Monsters
2004
Winner
Edwidge Danticat for The Dew Breaker
Finalists
Cathy Day for The Circus in Winter
Joan Silber for Ideas of Heaven