The Story Prize

Anthony Doerr, George Saunders, Elizabeth Strout, and 11 others showcase the power of short fiction in this short story collection of award-winning tales.

This anthology of short stories includes one story from 14 of the annual Story Prize collections! Inside you’ll find short stories by some of literature’s brightest talents—introduced by the author’s themselves or by Story Prize judges:

• Edwidge Danticat
• Patrick O’Keffe
• Mary Gordon
• Jim Shepard
• Tobias Wolff
• Daniyal Mueenuddin
• Anthony Doerr
• Steven Millhauser
• Claire Vaye Watkins
• George Saunders
• Elizabeth McCracken
• Adam Johnson
• Rick Bass
• Elizabeth Strout

The founder of The Story Prize, Julie Lindsey, and its director, Larry Dark, created The Story Prize to address the lack of awards specifically for short story collections. Together they choose 3 finalists from the previous year’s publications, which are sent to 3 judges—an author, a bookseller or librarian, and a critic or editor—who, independently of one another, relay their choices.

The prize is then presented at an annual celebration in New York, where the finalists read from their books and then discuss their work. Excerpts from these interviews—or, in a few cases, the judges’ citations—introduce each story featured in in this landmark short story anthology.Praise for The Story Prize

"You don’t often get collections, or even anthologies where every story knocks you out, but I’ve been bewildered in the best way over each one [in The Story Prize] so far." —Lillian Li, author of Number One Chinese Restaurant

"Skillful distillations . . . A pleasure for students of the genre." —Kirkus Reviews

"A beautiful celebration of works from the famous and celebrated . . . to newer voices . . . Absorbing and contextualizing the strength of these stories takes time and effort and will reap great rewards." —Christopher John Stephens, PopMattersLARRY DARK has been the director of The Story Prize since its inception in 2004. Before that, he served as series editor for six volumes of The O. Henry Prize Stories (1997–2002) and compiled, edited, and introduced four other anthologies: Literary Outtakes, The Literary Ghost,The Literary Lover, and The Literary Traveler.