24156: (pub) Chamberlain: The Story Prize (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   NEW YORK, Jan 26 (AP) -- Edwidge Danticat's "The Dew Breaker" has been
named the winner of the first Story Prize, which honors the author of an
outstanding collection of short fiction.
   Published by Random House's Alfred A. Knopf imprint, "The Dew Breaker"
is a book of connected stories about Haitians and Haitian-Americans whose
lives have been affected by the actions of the title character, a humble
Brooklyn barber with a secret past in his native land.
   "The Dew Breaker" also is a finalist for the National Book Critics
Circle award, which will be announced in March.
   Danticat was born in Haiti and moved to the United States when she was
12. She's the author of the novels "Breath, Eyes, Memory"; "Krik? Krak!," a
National Book Award finalist; and "The Farming of Bones," an American Book
Award winner.
   Eligible books must be the first publication of the work in the United
States, in either hardcover or paperback, and available for purchase by the
general public. Collections must also include work previously unpublished
in book form. The first prize winner receives an engraved silver bowl and
$20,000.
   The two runners-up were Cathy Day for "The Circus in Winter" and Joan
Silber for "Ideas of Heaven." Each were awarded $1,000.