The three finalists for the Story Prize were announced today (click here to see their release). The winner will be announced on March 13.
- Stay Awake, by Dan Chaon
- This Is How You Lose Her, by Junot Díaz
- Battleborn, by Claire Vaye Watkins
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I’ve been looking forawrd to this list, and I’m glad to see two collection on there that I know nothing about. I’m not surprised but a bit sad to see This Is How You Lose Her on the list, but I’m aware that I’m out of step on Junot Díaz (as I’ve gotten on George Saunders, whose book will probably be on this list next year).
I do wonder about the absence of a few excellent collections: Steve Stern’s The Book of Mischief and, of course, Alice Munro’s Dear Life. The release says that there were 98 submissions representing 65 publishers, so who knows if these were even considered — wouldn’t it be nice to know, though? Just having a brief Twitter exchange with Ron Charles and M.A. Orthofer about how sad it is that we never know what books so many awards consider. For Orthofer and me, it gives the publishers too much power for gamesmanship, hurting us readers and the writers.
Anyway, off to learn more about Stay Awake and Battleborn.
‘Stay Awake’ is a great collection, Trevor, and one I enjoyed a lot. I have ‘Battleborn’ to read although I think I’ll have to read the stories out of order as every time I attempt the first one I just can’t get into it. I’ll confess that Diaz has never appealed to me so I won’t be reading that one anytime soon.
I’d not come across the Story Prize until a few months ago – their blog has featured 72 of the submitted collections and has led me to reading some very good books I wouldn’t otherwise have heard of such as Chad Simpson’s ‘Tell Everyone I Said Hi’ Marie-Helene Bertino’s ‘Safe as Houses’ and Andrew Malan Milward’s ‘The Agriculture Hall of Fame’.
I too would have liked to have seen ‘Dear Life’ amongst the finalists, as well as Joan Wickersham’s ‘The News from Spain’ which I thought was superb.
Ah, it’s great to hear they’ve been highlighting the submitted collections. I hope they end up covering all 98 so we know what was in contention. Thanks for pointing that out, David. And, also, thanks for the good word about some of the other collections.
For those interested, here is an index of the 72 collections highlighted on The Story Prize blog. They gave all 98 authors the opportunity to contribute, and I think getting 72 is a nice turnout. Murno is not here, which may mean she didn’t want to contribute or that her book wasn’t submitted. If it wasn’t submitted, it is possible that her policy of not submitting to the Giller anymore also applies to all other prizes.