New York’s Center for Fiction revealed the longlist for its First Novel Prize, with Kelly Link, Kaveh Akbar, and Morgan Talty among the 25 authors contending for the annual award given to a debut work of longform fiction.
Link, the short story writer who has been a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and the Pulitzer Prize, made the longlist for The Book of Love, while Akbar was nominated for Martyr! Talty, who won multiple prizes for his story collection, Night of the Living Rez, was longlisted for Fire Exit.
Rita Bullwinkel was nominated for Headshot, which was recently longlisted for the Booker Prize. Essie Chambers made the longlist for Swift River, alongside Vanessa Chan for The Storm We Made, Tessa Fontaine for The Red Grove, Marcela Fuentes for Malas, Parul Kapur for Inside the Mirror, Daniel Lefferts for Ways and Means, Betsy Lerner for Shred Sisters, Lily Meyer for Short War, and Melissa Mogollon for Oye.
Also longlisted for the prize were Iris Mwanza for The Lions’ Den, Andrew X. Pham for Twilight Territory, Nicolette Polek for Bitter Water Opera, Ruthvika Rao for The Fertile Earth, Mai Sennaar for They Dream in Gold, Clare Sestanovich for Ask Me Again, Ery Shin for Spring on the Peninsula, Charlie J. Stephens for A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest, Joseph Earl Thomas for God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, August Thompson for Anyone’s Ghost, Sasha Vasilyuk for Your Presence Is Mandatory, and Ledia Xhoga for Misinterpretation.
The First Novel Prize was established in 2006. Previous winners include Hannah Tinti for The Good Thief, Viet Thanh Nguyen for The Sympathizer, and Tyriek White for We Are a Haunting.
The shortlist for the First Novel Prize will be revealed in the fall, with the winner announced at a ceremony in New York on Dec. 10.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
