2009/10 Winner & Finalists

Winner: In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin (W. W. Norton)—These eight connected stories set in southern Pakistan bring to life the world of an aging feudal landlord, his Western educated daughters, desperate and conniving servants, farm workers, corrupt judges, politicians, aristocrats, and foreigners. Throughout, the writing is elegant and self-assured, and deeply insightful without being judgmental. Offical web site | Buy this book 

Daniyal Mueenuddin was brought up in Lahore, Pakistan, and Elroy, Wisconsin. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Yale Law School. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Zoetrope, and The Best American Short Stories 2008 selected by Salman Rushdie, and will appear in PEN/O.Henry Prize Stories 2010. For a number of years he practiced law in New York. He lives in London and on a farm in Pakistan’s southern Punjab.

Finalist: Drift by Victoria Patterson

Drift by Victoria Patterson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)—The wealthy enclave of Newport Beach, California, is the setting for thirteen stories, told with grace and compassion, that focus on characters who live on the margins, including waiters, waitresses, confused children of divorce, and a beautiful, brain-damaged skateboarder. Official web site | Buy this book

Victoria Patterson grew up in Newport Beach and received her MFA from UC Riverside. Her short fiction has appeared in the Santa Monica Review, Florida Review, and Snake-Nation Review,among other publications. She lives with her family in South Pasadena, California.

Finalist: Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)—Ambivalence, wrong-thinking, and confusion are the engines that drive these nine insightful, witty stories that culminate in a tale about marauding Vikings who turn out to be just like the misguided, contemporary American characters in the book. Official web site | Buy this book

Wells Tower’s short stories and journalism have appeared in The New Yorker,Harper’s Magazine, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, The Washington Post Magazine, and elsewhere. He received two Pushcart Prizes and the Plimpton Prize from The Paris Review. He divides his time between Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Brooklyn, New York.

The 2009/10 Story Prize Judges

• Author A.M. Homes
• Librarian Bill Kelly
• Blogger Carolyn Kellog