Save the Short Story

I suppose this means that the five other people who published short story collections won’t be able to put “Nominated for the 2008 Frank O’Connor Award” on their resumes. 

The Director of the Award, Patrick Cotter said:

“With a unanimous winner at this early stage we decided it would be a sham to compose a shortlist and put five other writers through unnecessary stress and suspense. Not only were the jury unanimous in their choice of Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth as the winner, they were unanimous in their belief that so outstanding was Lahiri’s achievement in this book that no other title was a serious contender.”

Nice.

The awards ceremony will be held on September 21st, 2008 in Cork, Ireland, and it is the closing event for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Festival, which kicks off on September 17th.

The Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award is an annual award of 35,000 euros, which makes it the world’s richest prize for the short story form. This short story prize is given to the author of the book judged to be the best collection of stories published in English for the first time anywhere in the world from September and August of any given year. If a translated book wins, the purse is shared by the author and translator. This award is in memory of the late Frank O’Connor.  

Check out their website for more information about the award and past winners.

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