Yiyun Li has been named the winner of the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award 2015. For this accomplishment, Li will receive £30,000 in prize money which is “the world’s richest prize for a single short story.”
Li has become the first female winner in the award’s history. She beat out five other writers on the short list with her piece, “A Sheltered Woman.” The New Yorker published it back in March 2014.
Li gave a statement in the press release about the inspiration behind her story: “A couple years ago, while rummaging through old things, I found a notebook that I had bought at a garage sale in Iowa City when I first came to America—I had paid five cents for it. The notebook was in a good shape; though it remained unused. A character occurred to me: she paid a dime and asked if there was a second notebook so she did not have to have the change back. Such greed, the character said, laughing at herself. From that moment on I knew I had a story.’