Nicholas Lezard blogging in The Guardian

Give us back our shortlists
The judges should have given a handful of writers the chance to put 'shortlisted for a Frank O'Connor award' on their next book
July 7, 2008

Hitherto, I am afraid I have not been on very familiar terms with the Frank O'Connor award, which is given to the best writer of a short story collection anywhere in the world. But now it will stick in my mind until the end of my days because this year the judges dispensed with a shortlist. They agreed straight away that they weren't going to find anything better than Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, so they gave her the prize without going through the rigmarole of announcing a shortlist. As they put it: "We decided it would be a sham to compose a shortlist and put five other writers through unnecessary stress and suspense."
Now, let me get one thing straight: I like the idea of the Frank O'Connor award. Short stories don't get noticed enough these days, and this is a valuable corrective. It's a generous prize, too - €35,000 - and, a nice touch, if the stories were originally written in another language, the translator into English gets half the dosh.
But this business of dispensing with the shortlist - I don't like that at all. There are two main reasons, and only one is literary.

Interesting stuff, read the full blog here.