Rochester, New York –– BOA Editions, Ltd. is pleased to announce that E.C. Osondu is the winner of the ninth annual BOA Short Fiction Prize for his collection Alien Stories. BOA Publisher Peter Conners selected the winning manuscript from a pool of more than 320 submissions. Osondu will receive a $1,000 honorarium and book publication by BOA Editions, Ltd. within the American Reader Series in spring 2021.
“Thank you, BOA Editions, for opening your arms and giving a home to Alien Stories. Particularly poignant because these are for the most part stories about characters who seesaw between finding a home and being cast out. Thank you for helping Alien Stories make its way into the often alienating world in which we live today,” Osondu said.
Peter Conners says of Alien Stories, “With nimble dexterity and startling originality, E.C. Osondru shifts from Africa to America to outer space, uniting us all as ‘aliens’ within a complex and interconnected universe.”
In addition to the winning manuscript, a finalist and three semi-finalists were also selected:
WINNER:
Alien Stories by E.C. Osondu
FINALIST:
The Complete Writings of Art Smith, The Bird Boy of Fort Wayne, Edited by Michael Martone by Michael Martone
SEMI-FINALISTS:
Excavations by Nina Sudhakar
I Blame Myself But Also You by Spencer Fleury
Senior Skip Day by Phong Nguyen
Both the winning manuscript and the finalist will be published as part of the American Reader Series. The Complete Writings of Art Smith, The Bird Boy of Fort Wayne, Edited by Michael Martone will be the second BOA Short Fiction Prize finalist to receive publication in addition to the winning manuscript.
E.C. Osondu is the author of the collection of stories Voice of America and the novel This House is Not For Sale. In addition to the BOA Short Fiction Prize, he is a winner of the Caine Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and a Pushcart Special Mention, among other awards. He earned his M.F.A from Syracuse University, where he was a Syracuse University Fellow. His fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, AGNI, n+1, Guernica, Kenyon Review, McSweeney’s, Zyzzyva, The Threepenny Review, Lapham’s Quarterly, New Statesman, and many other places, and his work has been translated into over half a dozen languages including Icelandic, Japanese, and Belarusian. He is a Contributing Editor at AGNI, the Boston University literary journal. He has been a Visiting Professor at UT Austin and currently teaches at Providence College in Rhode Island.
BOA Editions will accept manuscripts for the tenth annual BOA Short Fiction Prize between April 1 and May 31, 2020. An entry form and a $25 fee are required. Complete guidelines for the BOA Short Fiction Prize are available at https://www.boaeditions.org/boa-short-fiction-prize.
