Pulitzer prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout was awarded The Story Prize and a cash award of $20,000 for her short story collection, Anything is Possible, at a ceremony Wednesday night at the New School in New York City.
Judges for The Story Prize praised the book for its “subtle power,” and described Strout as “a specialist in the reticence of people, and her characters are compelling because of the complexity of their internal lives, and the clarity with which that complexity is depicted.” Anything is Possible was published by Random House.
The other finalists for the 2017 Story Prize were Daniel Alarcón for The King Is Always Above the People (Riverhead Books) and Ottessa Moshfegh for Homesick for Another World (Penguin Press). Alarcón and Moshfegh each received a $5,000 runners up cash prize. More than 120 collections were submitted for this year’s prize. The winning short story collection was chosen by three judges: author Susan Minot, author and critic Walton Muyumba, and Library Journal editor Stephanie Sendaula
Strout is the 14th winner of The Story Prize, which honors the author of an outstanding collection of short fiction. Strout is also the author of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge, a collection of interconnected short stories, in addition to the novels, My Name is Lucy Barton (2016), The Burgess Boys (2013) and Amy and Isabelle (2000).
