3 finalists announced for $20,000 Story Prize for outstanding short fiction

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NEW YORK (AP) — The authors of stories set everywhere from Australia to Central America are nominees for a $20,000 prize for short fiction.

The Story Prize, established in 2004, has honored books by Edwidge Danticat, George Saunders and Elizabeth Strout among others.

This year's finalists are Fiona McFarlane's “Highway Thirteen,” which centers on an Australian serial killer; Ruben Reyes Jr.'s “There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven,” stories about Central American migration to the U.S.; and Jessi Jezewska Stevens' “Ghost Pains,” skewed narratives as told from a witness stand, a troubled visit to Tuscany or a decidedly awful party.

“Each of these three story collections is so original in conception and brilliantly executed that only the person who wrote them could have done so. Books like these demonstrate that the short story remains an elastic, vital, and dynamic literary form,” Larry Dark, director of The Story Prize, said in a statement Monday.

The winner will be announced March 25.