Van Booy Wins Frank O'Connor Award

The Guardian announces that Simon van Booy won this year's Frank O'Connor Award for his story collection Love Begins in Winter. I’ve had this book sitting on my shelf since May, so maybe this will be the push I need to pick it up. I've heard so many good things about Van Booy's work.

The annual Frank O’Connor Award comes with €35,000, making it the world’s richest short story prize. Other than Van Booy’s book, the shortlisted titles included: Petina Gappah’s An Elegy for Easterly, Charlotte Grimshaw’s Singularity, Shih-Li Kow’s Ripples and Other Stories, Philip O’Ceallaigh’s The Pleasant Light of Day, and Wells Tower’s Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned. Van Booy was initially “very nervous” about appearing at the Frank O'Connor festival as a shortlister for the prize, but he quickly got over his nervousness after reading the other shortlisted books. Why? Van Booy explains, “I was shocked by the quality of the work, and I knew I had no hope of winning."