Jim Shepard wins $30,000 short story prize

NEW YORK – Jim Shepard, an author acclaimed for his distinctive, fact-based fiction, has won a $30,000 prize for short story writers.

Shepard is this year’s recipient of the Rea Award, prize officials told The Associated Press on Monday. Established in 1986, the Rea Award is given to writers who have made a “significant contribution” to short stories. Prize judges cited Shepard’s “prodigious research” into history and science and “X-ray vision of the soul.”

The 60-year-old Shepard is known for such collections as “Love and Hydrogen” and “Like You’d Understand, Anyway,” a National Book Award finalist in 2007. His latest book, “The World to Come,” was published in March.