The National Book Foundation announced this year’s class of 5 Under 35 honorees Wednesday. The program recognizes “fiction writers under the age of 35 whose debut work promises to leave a lasting impression on the literary landscape.”
The honorees were chosen by writers who either were previously selected for the 5 Under 35 program, or who have won, or have been shortlisted or longlisted for a National Book Award.
Alexandra Chang, author of the 2020 novel Days of Distraction, was picked for the program by Jason Mott, who won the most recent National Book Award for fiction for his novel Hell of a Book.
Previous 5 Under 35 winner Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi (Savage Tongues) selected Joseph Han for the program; Han’s Nuclear Family will be published by Counterpoint in June.
Crystal Hana Kim (If You Leave Me) was chosen for the honor by Min Jin Lee, who was a National Book Award finalist for Pachinko.
Anthony Doerr, a two-time National Book Award finalist for All the Light We Cannot See and Cloud Cuckoo Land, picked Objects of Desire author Clare Sestanovich.
Rounding out this year’s class is Alyssa Songsiridej, whose Little Rabbit will be published by Bloomsbury next month. Songsiridej was selected by Julia Phillips, a National Book Award finalist for Disappearing Earth.
The selected authors will be honored at a ceremony, along with last year’s class of honorees, at a ceremony in New York in June.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
