The 10 finalists for the Gotham Book Prize have been announced, with Torrey Peters, Colson Whitehead, and Kaitlyn Greenidge among the authors in the running for the $50,000 literary award.
This is the second year for the award, which is given to an outstanding book about New York City, or set in the five boroughs.
Peters made the shortlist for her novel Detransition, Baby, which is also a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize. Whitehead’s Harlem Shuffle, a Kirkus Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, also made the cut.
Greenidge was named a finalist for Libertie, along with Zakiya Dalila Harris for The Other Black Girl, Natalie Standiford for Astrid Sees All, Elisabet Velasquez for When We Make It, and Jim Lewis for Ghosts of New York.
Three nonfiction books made the shortlist: New York, New York: Four Decades of Success, Excess and Transformation by Tom Dyja, Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott, and Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993 by Sarah Schulman.
The Gotham Book Prize was established by philanthropists Bradley Tusk and Howard Wolfson. It was awarded last year to James McBride for his novel Deacon King Kong. The winner of this year’s prize will be announced in March.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
