The Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award announced its 2013 shortlist today, and one of the six spots goes to Ontario author Tamas Dobozy for his 2012 collection Siege 13 (Thomas Allen Publishers). Ten Canadian authors were longlisted for the prize, but Dobozy is the only one to move on to the final round.

He faces stiff competition from a roster of five acclaimed contenders. The other shortlisted authors are:

• David Constantine, Tea at the Midland and Other Stories (Comma Press)
• Joyce Carol Oates, Black Dahlia & White Rose (HarperCollins)
• Deborah Levy, Black Vodka (& Other Stories)
• Peter Stamm, We’re Flying (Granta)
• Claire Vaye Watkins, Battleborn (Granta)

Siege 13 won the 2012 Rogers Writers’ Trust Award and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction.

The Frank O’Connor Award, named for the late Irish story writer, is open to any book of short fiction published for the first time in English anywhere in the world. The jury for the 2013 prize consists of poet Patrick Cotter (who acts as non-voting jury chair); poet and story writer John F. Deane; founder of the Sunday Times Short Story Award, Cathy Galvin; and former executive editor of The Paris Review, Brigid Hughes.

The winner of the Frank O’Connor Award, which comes with a purse of €25,000, will be announced in early July.