Anthony Doerr wins The Story Prize

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Anthony Doerr just won The Story Prize for his collection “Memory Wall.” He wins $20,000, while the two runners-up win $5,000. Doerr is no stranger to accolades — Granta also named him in the Best of Young American Novelists.

One unusual fact about this collection, other than its memory-centric theme, is that it only contains six stories rather than the normal ten to twelve, which places the length of some stories in the arena of the novella.

What I like about The Story Prize is they always choose a good cast for their shortlist, and they have a very nice track record of selecting excellent artists of the craft. Previous winners include Daniyal Mueenuddin (who I interviewed about his collection), Edwidge Danticat, Jim Shepard and Tobias Wolff.

This year, the only collection I’d read on the shortlist was Suzanne Rivecca’s “Death is Not an Option,” which was an excellent collection, full of fiery language and female characters escaping Catholic backgrounds.

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3 comments

  1. After reading this post, I ran out and bought Memory Wall. While I adored The Shell Collector, I found the only story in Memory Wall I could get completely behind was “Generate, Procreate”. I loved the subject matter though. Thanks for covering The Story Prize, and being nerdy enough to make literary journal March Madness.