I missed it earlier this week, but the finalists for The Story Prize were announced (see here for the official announcement).
- Archangel, by Andrea Barrett
- Bobcat, by Rebecca Lee
- Tenth of December, by George Saunders
My vote goes to Archangel, by Andrea Barrett. Though I should admit I have not read the entirety of any of these collections (and not a word of Bobcat), so I’m speaking from my biases there. I’m a big fan of Andrea Barrett’s work.
This year, The Story Prize also gave out The Story Prize Spotlight Award to Byzantium, by Ben Stroud. This award for $1,000 goes to “a short story collection worthy of additional attention.”
I missed that announcement too: thanks for the post. I’ve only read stories from other collections by Barrett and Saunders, but I did hear Rebecca Lee read at a literary festival when Bobcat was published and thought the story was outstanding: it added the colleciton to my TBR immediately (but, alas, books get added far more quickly than they are read…I’m sure you understand).
The Rebecca Lee collection is outstanding.
Great to hear, juliemcl. I have a copy of it coming my way, so I hope I agree!