2012 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award Longlist

I'm in Edinburgh for 2 weeks- more on that shortly. But in the meantime, what a thrill that my soon-to-be-published second collection, My Mother Was An Upright Piano: Fictions, has been longlisted for the 2012 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award! As you will see below, it is a looong longlist, because most of the eligible collections make the longlist. Am I despairing in the face of such competition for the €25,000? Nope. I am rejoicing! A few years ago, the longlist had 40 or so books, now it has around 75... so this means either that more short story collections are being published, or that more publishers know about the prize and are submitting - or BOTH, and both those things make me very happy!

And it's an honour to be on a list that includes several friends - A J Ashworth, Nuala Ni Chonchúir, Charles Christian, Orflaith Foyle, Mary Costello, and some of my favourite writers - Joyce Carol Oates, Nathan Englander, Tessa Hadley (who taught me on the Bath Spa MA), Diane Williams, Steve Almond, Etgar Keret, Don de Lillo, Jo McGregor.... Am I predicting the shortlist? I hope not, I hope to be surprised! I will be at the Cork International Short Story Festival in September where the prize is presented anyway, teaching flash fiction workshops (see the Festival workshops brochure) and reading from the new book, so I look forward to meeting the shortlisted writers (and hoping I'm not too starstruck...)

So, here's the list - an excellent starting point if you're looking to enrich your bookshelves (real or virtual, I must add, as a new Kindle user... aaargh). Many I've not heard of, and I keep both ears to the ground when it comes to short story collections, so I'm delighted. Links are to those we've already reviewed in The Short Review - of anyone wants to offer to review any of the others, please email (editor (at) theshortreview (dot) com)! Good luck to all, shortlist announced in June.

Steve Almond, God Bless America, Lookout Books, USA

A. J. Ashworth, Somewhere Else, or Even Here, Salt Publishing, UK

Diane Awerbuck, Cabin Fever, Umuzi, South Africa

Lou Beach, 420 Characters, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, USA

Frank Bill, Crimes in Southern Indiana, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, USA

Will Boast, Power Ballads, University of Iowa Press, USA

Greg Bottoms, Swallowing the Past, Texas Review Press, USA

Laura Boudreau, Suitable Precautions, Biblioasis, Canada

Shannon Cain, The Necessity of Certain Behaviors, University of Pittsburgh Press, USA

Neil Campbell, Pictures from Hopper, Salt Publishing, UK

Eileen Casey, Snow Shoes, Arlen House, Ireland

O Thiam Chin, The Rest of Your Life and Everything That Comes With It, ZI Publications, Singapore

Charles Christian, This is the Quickest Way Down, Proxima, UK

Dave Chua, The Beating, Ethos Books, Singapore

K. L. Cook, Love Songs for the Quarantined, Willow Springs Editions, USA

Mary Costello, The China Factory, The Stinging Fly Press, Ireland

Eugene Cross, Fires of Our Choosing, Dzanc Books, USA

Don DeLillo, The Angel Esmeralda, Picador, USA

Stanley Donwood, Household Worms, Tangent Books, UK

Catherine Eisner, Listen Close to Me, Salt Publishing, UK

Nathan Englander, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, Alfred A. Knopf, USA

Matthew Firth, Shag Carpet Action, Anvil Press, Canada

Órfhlaith Foyle, Somewhere in Minnesota, Arlen House, Ireland

Matthew Francis, Singing a Man to Death, Cinnamon Press, UK

David Galef, My Date With Neanderthal Woman, Dzanc Books, USA

Dagoberto Gilb, Before the End, After the Beginning, Grove Press, USA

Namita Gokhale, The Habit of Love, Penguin Group, India

Lorna Goodison, By Love Possessed, HarperCollins Publishers, Jamaica

Daniel Griffin, Stopping for Strangers, Véhicule Press, Canada

Tessa Hadley, Married Love, Jonathan Cape, UK

Sarah Hall, The Beautiful Indifference, Faber and Faber, UK

Hanjum Hasan, Difficult Pleasures, Penguin Group, India

Tania Hershman, My Mother Was an Upright Piano, Tangent Books, UK

Keith Jardim, Near Open Water, Peepal Tree Press, USA

James Martyn Joyce, What’s not Said, Arlen House, Ireland

Suzanne Kamata, The Beautiful One Has Come, Wyatt-Mackenzie Publishing, USA

Jackie Kay, Reality, Reality, Picador, UK

Etgar Keret, Suddenly, a Knock in the Door, Chatto & Windus, Israel

Fiona Kidman, The Trouble With Fire, Random House, New Zealand

Zoe Lambert, The War Tour, Comma Press, UK

Krys Lee, Drifting House, Faber and Faber, USA – South Korea

Adam Levin, Hot Pink, McSweeney’s, USA

Peter Markus, We Make Mud, Dzanc Books, USA

Rowena Mcdonald, Smoked Meat, Flambard Press, UK

Jon McGregor, This Isn’t the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You, Bloomsbury, UK

K. R. Meera, Yellow Is the Colour of Longing, Penguin Group, India

Ana Menendez, Adios, Happy Homeland!, Grove Press, USA

Clemens Meyer, All the Lights, And Other Stories, Germany

Kevin Moffett, Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events, HarperCollins Publishers, USA

Jim Mullarkey, And, Doire Press, Ireland

Sabina Murray, Tales of the New World, Grove Press, Australia

Stuart Nadler, The Book of Life, Picador, USA

Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Mother America, New Island, Ireland

Éllis Ní Dhuibne, Shelter of Neighbours, Blackstaff Press, Ireland

Joyce Carol Oates, The Corn Maiden, Grove Press, USA

Rajesh Parameswaran, I Am an Executioner, Bloomsbury, USA

Cassandra Parkin, New World Fairy Tales, Salt Publishing, UK

Lucia Perillo, Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain, W. W. Norton & Company, USA

Dave Pescod, All Embracing, Route, UK

Alice Petersen, All the Voices Cry, Biblioasis, Canada

Stephanie Powell Watts, We Are Taking Only What We Need, BkMk Press, USA

Wayne Price, Furnace, Freight Books, UK

Stephanie Reents, The Kissing List, Hogarth, USA

Rebecca Rosenblum, The Big Dream, Biblioasis, Canada

Pamela Ryder, A Tendency to Be Gone, Dzanc Books, USA

Nathalie Serber, Shout Her Lovely Name, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, USA

Johanna Skibsrud, This Will Be Difficult to Explain, W. W. Norton Company/ Hamish Hamilton, Canada

Yasuko Thanh, Floating Like the Dead, McClelland & Stewart, Canada

Lysley Tenorio, Monstress, HarperCollins Publisher, USA-Philippines

Laura Maylene Walter, Living Arrangements, BkMk Press, USA

Diane Williams, Vicky Swanky Is a Beauty, McSweeney’s, USA

D. W. Wilson, Once You Break a Knuckle, Bloomsbury/ Hamish Hamilton, Canada

Lucy Wood, Diving Belles, Bloomsbury, UK

Barbara Unković, Moon Walking, Old Line Publishing, Croatia

Dina Zaman, King of the Sea, Silverfish Books, Malaysia