2021/22 Winner & Finalists

 Winner: Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor

Brandon Taylor is the author of Filthy Animals, a national bestseller, and the novel Real Life, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Iowa, where he was an Iowa Arts Fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in fiction. He is a 2022-2023 Fellow at the New York Public LIbrary’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.

Finalist: Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King

Lily King is the New York Times bestselling author of five novels: The Pleasing Hour, The English Teacher, Father of the Rain, Euphoria, Writers & Lovers, and one collection of short stories, Five Tuesdays in Winter. Her work has won numerous awards, including the Kirkus Prize, the New England Book Award for Fiction, the Maine Book Award for Fiction, a Whiting Award, and the Barnes & Noble Discover Award. She lives in Portland, Maine.

Finalist: Let Me Think by J. Robert Lennon

J. Robert Lennon is the author of three story collections and nine novels. His short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, The Paris Review, and Harper’s, and his criticism in The London Review of Books, The Guardian, and The New York Times Book Review. He teaches writing at Cornell University.

The Story Prize Spotlight Award: Born Into This by Adam Thompson

We’re pleased to announce the tenth winner of The Story Prize Spotlight Award, Born Into This by Adam Thompson (Two Dollar Radio), a collection of sixteen well-crafted stories that track the lives of aboriginal and non-aboriginal characters as they negotiate the social and economic pressures of modern-day Tasmania.

Adam Thompson is a pakana writer from Launceston, Tasmania. His work has been published by the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Kill Your Darlings, and Griffith Review. Born Into This was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards, The Age Book of the Year, and the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction.

Beyond the three finalists The Story Prize announces each year, we honor an additional short story collection of exceptional merit with The Story Prize Spotlight Award. Winners 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 comes with a prize of $1,000.

The 2021/22 Story Prize Judges

• Librarian and writer Dev Aujla

• Critic, writer, and librarian David Kipen

• Author Kirstin Valdez Quade