University of Georgia Press Flannery O’Connor Award

More than fifty short-story collections have appeared in the Flannery O’Connor Award series, which was established to encourage gifted emerging writers by bringing their work to a national readership. The first prize-winning book was published in 1983; the award has since become an important proving ground for writers and a showcase for the talent and promise that have brought about a resurgence in the short story as a genre. Winners are selected through an annual competition that attracts as many as three hundred manuscripts. Winners for 2009 whose works will be published this fall are: Geoffrey Becker for Black Elvis and Lori Ostlund for The Bigness of the World.