Junot Díaz wins world's richest short story prize

American author Junot Díaz, winner of both a Pulitzer and a MacArthur "genius" grant, has beaten a strong lineup of British writers to take the world's richest prize for a single short story.

Díaz's story, "Miss Lora", is about a high-school-age boy having a relationship with an older woman in 1980s New Jersey, and is written in the "Spanglish" for which the Dominican-born writer is known. It beat entries from top British authors including Mark Haddon, Ali Smith and Sarah Hall to be named winner of the £30,000 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank short story prize this evening. Judge and novelist Andrew O'Hagan called it a "contemporary classic".

Díaz, who took the Pulitzer for his debut novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, said his "young self would never have imagined me winning this as long as I live".

The American author joins former winners of the £30,000 award including Kevin Barry, who won last year for his story "Beer Trip to Llandudno", American Anthony Doerr, who won in 2011 for his story "The Deep", and New Zealander CK Stead, who took the first prize in 2010 with "Last Season's Man".