'Days' author Robison wins short story prize in NY

[May 11, 2010]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Author Mary Robison has received The Rea Award for the Short Story in New York City.

The 61-year-old Robison is known for her precise prose and dark humor. She's the author of "Days," "Believe Them" and two other collections.

Prize organizers say she'll receive $30,000.

Judges Andrea Barrett, Amy Hempel and Jayne Anne Phillips on Tuesday praised Robison's stories for "their lean, cool ferocity and their wry takes on people in pivotal moments."

The Rea Award is given for making a "significant contribution to the discipline of the short story form." It was founded in 1986 by short-story devotee and fiction writer Michael M. Rea, who died 10 years later.

Previous winners include Hempel, John Updike, Eudora Welty and Joyce Carol Oates.

[Associated Press]

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