2011 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Prize Longlist

The Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize has just announced its longlisted short story collections. As ever, it is a great list to start with if you're looking for some great reading material! As they say on their website, the award "is living up to its international credentials with a long list containing twelve UK writers, twenty-six Americans, four Irish, eight from Canada, two from India, two from Bulgaria and one each from Japan, Nigeria, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, China, Nepal and Spain, spanning four continents."

The non-voting chairman of the 2011 jury is Patrick Cotter, curator of the Award. The voting members of the jury are poet and novelist Thomas McCarthy who served also on the 2006 jury, Kinsale-based novelist and short story writer Alannah Hopkin and Guardian short story blogger Chris Power. This jury will announce a short list in July prior to the award ceremony in September during the Cork International Short Story Festival.

The longlist is as follows (with links to those collections The Short Review has already reviewed):


Clark Blaise The Meagre Tarmac Biblioasis USA

Summer Brenner My Life in Clothes Red Hen Press USA

Jo Cannon Insignificant Gestures Pewter Rose Press UK

Uttara Chauhan Blue Blood Penguin India Canada

Michael Christie The Beggar's Garden HarperCollins Canada Canada

Richard Cumyn The Young in Their Country Enfield and Wizenty Canada

Anthony Doerr Memory Wall Fourth Estate USA  review coming soon

Doug Dorst The Surf Guru Riverhead Books USA

Deyan Enev Circus Bulgaria Portobello Bulgaria

Danielle Evans Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self Riverhead Books USA

Stuart Evers Ten Stories about Smoking Picador UK

Edward Falco Burning Man Southern Methodist University Press USA

Siobhan Fallon You Know When the Men Are Gone Amy Einhorn Books USA

Roshi Fernando Homesick Impress UK

Karen Joy Fowler What I Didn't See Small Beer USA review coming soon

Vanessa Gebbie Storm Warning Salt UK review coming soon

Sue Gee Last Fling Salt UK

Ben Greenman Celebrity Chekhov Harper Perennial USA

Linda LeGarde Grover The Dance Boots University of Georgia Press USA

Tina May Hall The Physics of Imaginary Objects University of Pittsburgh Press USA review coming soon

Alan Heathcock Volt Graywolf USA

Ava Homa Echoes from the Other Land Tsar Canada

Valerie Laken Separate Kingdoms Harper Perennial USA

Yiyun Li Gold Boy, Emerald Girl Random House/ Fourth Estate China

Michael Kardos One Last Good Time Press 53 USA

Gitanjali Kolanad Sleeping with Movie Stars Penguin India India

Sean Mackel The River Guildhall Ireland

Alexander MacLeod Light Lifting Biblioasis Canada

Andre Mangeot True North Salt UK

Javier Marías While the Women are Sleeping Chatto and Windus Spain

Rob Mimpriss For His Warriors Gwasg y Bwthyn UK review coming soon

Mariko Nagai Georgic BkMk Japan

Prem Nath Crowded Rooms Penguin India India

Courttia Newland A Book of Blues Flambard UK review coming soon

Edna O'Brien Saints and Sinners Faber Ireland

Daniel Orozco Orientation Faber USA

Sue Orr  Random House New Zealand New Zealand

E.C.Osondu Voice of America Granta Books Nigeria

Kelcey Parker For Sale By Owner Kore USA

Miroslav Penkov East of the West Farrar, Straus & Giroux Bulgaria

Anne Perdue I'm a Registered Nurse Not a Whore Insomniac Canada

Andrew Plattner A Marriage of Convenience BkMk USA

Dawn Promislow Jewels Tsar Canada

Shann Ray American Masculine Graywolf USA

Mary Rechner Nine Simple Patterns for Complicated Women Propeller USA

Susannah Rickards Hot Kitchen Snow Salt UK

Suzanne Rivecca Death is Not an Option Norton USA

Moya Roddy Other People Wordsonthestreet Ireland

Ethel Rohan Cut Through the Bone Dark Sky Books Ireland

Gretchen Shirm Having Cried Wolf Affirm Australian

L.E. Smith Views Cost Extra Fomite USA

Christine Sneed Portraits of a Few of the People I've Made Cry University of Massachusetts Press USA

Fiona Thackeray The Secret's in the Folding Pewter Rose Press UK

Rabi Thapa Nothing to Declare Penguin India Nepal

Colm Tóibín The Empty Family Viking Penguin Ireland

Matthew J. Trafford The Divinity Gene Douglas & McIntyre Canada

Jessica Treadway Please Come Back to Me University of Georgia Press USA

Paul Tremblay In the Mean Time ChiZine Publications USA

Valerie Trueblood Marry or Burn Counterpoint USA

Salley Vickers Aphrodite's Hat Fourth Estate UK review coming soon

Ferdinand Von Schirach Crime Chatto and Windus Germany

Tom Vowler The Method Salt UK

Susi Wyss The Civilized World Holt USA