Three short story writers, Dan Chaon, Claire Vaye Watkins and Junot Diaz, have been named finalists for the 2013 Story Prize. The winner will be revealed at The New School’s awards ceremony on March 13th. Whoever emerges victorious will receive $20,000 and an engraved silver bowl.

Here’s more from the release: “Collections by two accomplished short story writers and an outstanding debut vie for the richest top prize of any annual U.S. book award for fiction…The Story Prize, an annual award for books of short fiction, is pleased to honor three outstanding short story collections chosen from among a record field of 98 books that 65 different publishers or imprints submitted in 2012.”

In addition, the organizers have created a new prize called The Story Prize Spotlight Award to honor “the work of an emerging author, an established but overlooked author, or an innovator in the short story form.”

This award comes with $1,000 in prize money. Director Larry Dark and founder Julie Lindsey examined the regular pool of entries for The Story Prize and chose Drifting House author Krys Lee as the inaugural winner.