Three collections of stories, from a writing heavyweight, a small-press author and an Irish immigrant, have been named finalists for the second annual Story Prize, a $20,000 award for short fiction that will be presented after a reading by the authors at the New School in Manhattan on Jan. 25. The finalists are Jim Harrison, the acclaimed novelist, poet and essayist, for "The Summer He Didn’t Die," three novellas published by Atlantic Monthly Press; Maureen F. McHugh, best known for her science fiction novels, for "Mothers & Other Monsters," 13 stories published by Small Beer Press of Northampton, Mass.; and Patrick O’Keeffe, a lecturer at the University of Michigan who immigrated to the United States from Ireland in the mid-1980’s, for "The Hill Road," four stories published by Viking.
Yay!
The judges are Nancy Pearl, Andrea Barrett and James Wood (attenTION!).
Stop by Maureen’s blog and congratulate her wildly!
p.s. Pressing question: what does the F. stand for? Inquiring minds …
I don’t know what the F stands for. But I do know that Maureen once contemplated using “M.F. McHugh” as her mainstream name…
Questioner: What does ‘M.F.’ stand for?
Maureen: I don’t know what it stands for where you come from, but where I come from it stands for motherfucker.
Yay Maureen!
Funny, I don’t know her for the book listed at all. I know her for “China Mountain Zhang”, which is one of the best science-fiction novels in the past 20 years.