Winner of the 6th Annual Story Foundation Prize

We are proud to announce the winner of our sixth annual Story Foundation Prize. Our judge Kristen Arnett has selected “Family Travel” by Grace Chao of San Francisco, California, as this year’s winning story, which will be featured in our summer 2025 issue, to be released in July.

Of Grace’s story, Kristen wrote, “This story does wonderful work with time! The back and forth here was tender, painstaking. Intricate. I was very invested in the sibling relationships, as well as parent/child dynamics. The idea that this girl would see her mother as a witch or a princess, sometimes both mixed, was incredibly compelling to me. How parents see children, how children see their parents. How ‘potential’ and the influence of others can affect growth and promise far into the future. I really, truly loved how this story wove narrative together into such a striking fabric.”

In addition, our staff selected six finalists. These are:

“What Kind of Mother” by Deborah Way
“Tony the Drunk is a Thief” by Michael Gerhard Martin
“Neko” by Kyoko Uchida
“Fakes” by Karin Lin-Greenberg
“Catch and Release” by Alexander Fredman
“Glen 2.0” by Brad Barkley

This year, we once again received over 600 entries, more than ever before, which means we read more wonderful stories than ever before! We are grateful to all the writers for the opportunity to read and consider their work.

Grace’s story will be featured in Issue #21 alongside writers such as Anthony Varallo, Zoe Ballering, Robert Ren, and Scott Garson, among many others.

The seventh annual Story Foundation Prize will open for entries on August 15, 2025.