The Republic of Consciousness Prize, United States and Canada, has unveiled the shortlist for its 2024 award, given to books that celebrate “the commitment of small presses to exceptional literary merit.”
Mark Haber was shortlisted for his novel Lesser Ruins, published by Coffee House Press. A critic for Kirkus called the book “an inventive meditation on grief and art.”
The four other books on the shortlist are all translated from other languages. Melvill, written by Rodrigo Fresán, translated from Spanish by Will Vanderhyden, and published by Open Letter, was named a finalist, as was Like a Sky Inside, written by Jakuta Alikavazovic, translated from the French by Daniel Levin Becker, and published by Fern Books.
The Case of Cem, written by Vera Mutafchieva, translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel, and published by Sandorf Passage, made the shortlist, alongside Your Absence is Darkness, written by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated from Icelandic by Philip Roughton, and published by Biblioasis.
The Republic of Consciousness Prize, United States and Canada, the North American iteration of a U.K. award, was established in 2022 by bookseller and critic Lori Feathers. The previous winners of the prize are God’s Children Are Little Broken Things, written by Arinze Ifeakandu and published by A Public Space Books, and Lojman, written by Ebru Ojen, translated by Aron Aji and Selin Gökçesu, and published by City Lights.
The winner of this year’s award will be announced on March 12.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
