2023 Judges

In alternating years, one of the three judges for The Store Prize is either a bookseller or a librarian. For story collections published in 2023, we’re featuring a renowned critic, the librarian at the Center for Fiction, and a highly regarded writer.

The 2023 judges for The Story Prize—who will choose the 20th winner—are critic and writer Merve Emre; librarian Allison Escoto; and novelist and short story writer Tania James.

THE 19TH WINNER OF THE STORY PRIZE IS
BLISS MONTAGE BY LING MA

As announced at a private event that was broadcast live, the winner of The Story Prize for books published in 2022 is Ling Ma for Bliss Montage (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). The other finalists were Andrea Barrett for Natural History (W.W. Norton & Company) and Morgan Talty for Night of the Living Rez (Tin House). The Story Prize’s $20,000 top prize is among the largest first-prize amounts of any annual U.S. book award for fiction. As runners-up, Barrett and Talty each received $5,000.

Bliss Montage, Ma’s second book, blends speculative and realistic elements in stories that at times verge on the absurd and the surreal. Despite this blend and the often comical situations Ma’s characters find themselves in, these precise and skillful stories also reveal hard truths in a plain style that powerfully amplifies the shocks revealed.

Director Larry Dark and Founder Julie Lindsey selected the three finalists for The Story Prize, now in its 19th year, from among 119 short story collections published in 2022, representing 79 different publishers or imprints. Three judges—critic, writer, and editor Adam Dalva; writer and past finalist Danielle Evans, and bookseller and podcaster Miwa Messer—determined the winner from among the three books chosen as finalists.

About The Story Prize

Past winners have been Edwidge Danticat, Patrick O'Keeffe, 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, Lauren Groff, Edwidge Danticat (a second time), Deesha Philyaw, and, Brandon Taylor. Nearly all of these books are available at Bookshop.org in our list of Story Prize winners.

The deadlines for submitting 2024 books are July 1 and Nov. 15. You can find a list of short story collections submitted for The Story Prize in 2023 at Bookshop.org.

The Story Prize, now in its 20th year, is a $20,000 book prize awarded to the author of the short story collection
named best of the year by three independent judges. 

“The Story Prize―which recognizes the best story collection to be published each year―has quickly established itself as a nifty jewel in a writer’s crown.”

The Story Prize partners