Tobias Wolff captures $20,000 Story Prize
Last Updated: Wednesday, March 4, 2009 | 9:32 PM ET
CBC News
Related
External Links
(Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites - links will open in new window)
American author Tobias Wolff has captured the prestigious Story Prize for his short-story collection Our Story Begins.
The Alabama-born writer was handed the $20,000 US award on Wednesday.
Established in 2004, the prize honours excellence in the short-story genre.
The other finalists — Jhumpa Lahiri for Unaccustomed Earth and Joe Meno for Demons in the Spring — each receive $5,000 US.
Wolff, a professor at Stanford University in California, has made a name for himself in memoir and short-story writing.
His first short-story collection, In the Garden of the North American Martyrs, was published in 1981 and released to some acclaim. He then published another two anthologies of short stories.
Our Story Begins includes 16 stories from three previous collections.
His 1989 memoir This Boy's Life — chronicling Wolff's itinerant adolescence — was made into a movie in 1993 starring Leonardo diCaprio and Robert De Niro.
A second memoir, In Pharaoh's Army (1994), details his tour of duty in Vietnam.
Previous winners include Edwidge Danticat for The Dew Breaker (2005), Patrick O'Keeffe for The Hill Road (2006), Mary Gordon for The Stories of Mary Gordon (2007), and Jim Shepard for Like You'd Understand, Anyway (2008).
Share Tools
FILM REVIEW: Men in Black 3 by Eli Glasner May. 25, 2012 11:40 AM Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are back in the action sequel Men in Black 3, a third instalment of a series now 15 years old. Though new addition Josh Brolin manages some amazing mimicry as a younger version of Jones, the story doesn't measure up to the weird and wonderful charms of the original, says film reviewer Eli Glasner.
Top News Headlines
- Quebec students to challenge Bill 78 in court
- A collective of student associations, unions and environmental groups is holding a news conference Friday morning to announce their plans to mount a legal challenge against Bill 78. more »
- Teens share bullying tales in confession booth
- Raw stories about bullying emerged when a video booth was set up inside a Quebec high school. more »
- Reclaiming the dead on Mt. Everest
- The difficulty, danger and expense of removing the bodies of climbers who died in Mount Everest's "death zone" mean most of the dead remain on the mountain as a stark reminder to other climbers of the risks. more »
- Foreign investment review threshold rising to $1 billion
- The federal government is raising to $1 billion the amount of foreign money that can go into a Canadian company before the investment is reviewed. more »
Latest Arts & Entertainment News Headlines
- Shakespeare's Winter's Tale gets African reboot
- A Nigerian theatre company is performing an African reboot of The Winter's Tale, one of the lesser known tragicomedies written by the Bard, in London as part of the London Cultural Olympiad. more »
- Elton John cancels Las Vegas concerts over illness
- Elton John is suffering from a serious respiratory infection and has cancelled three Las Vegas performances on doctors' orders. more »
- Double-lung recipient dances on Ellen show
- Organ donation advocate Hèlène Campbell of Ottawa made her second appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, but her first since undergoing a double-lung transplant. more »
- Vancouver Bieber fans in disbelief over tour snub
- Justin Bieber announced yesterday morning the dates of his world tour in support his latest album Believe, but fans in Vancouver were disappointed to see that their city didn't make the list. more »
Q Blog
Toni Morrison on her two selves May. 25, 2012 11:43 AM Jian speaks with the celebrated African American author and academic about her two conflicting selves, and her new novel, Home.
CBC Books
Talking about war May. 25, 2012 11:35 AM The public conversation around war has always been complex and thorny. How does Canada's military approach differ from that of other countries? Are we a society of peacekeepers or warriors? These are some of the questions that Noah Richler explores in his new book What We Talk About When We Talk About War.
- Reclaiming the dead on Mt. Everest
- New mom among dead in Aylmer triple stabbing
- Workers' EI history to affect claim under new rules
- Employment Insurance review boards to be scrapped
- Conservatives move again to have robocalls suits tossed
- Teens share bullying tales in confession booth
- Gatineau police to question man in multiple homicides
- Quebec faces mounting pressure amid student crisis
- SpaceX capsule captured by Canadarm2
