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    Here’s the longlist for the 2020 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize.

    Rasheeda Saka
    By 
    September 22, 2020, 2:38pm

    Today, the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), in partnership with the Brooklyn Eagles, announced the longlist for the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize for fiction/poetry and nonfiction. The prize, one of the few major literary prizes from a public library system, comes with a $5,000 purse. Previous winners include Carmen Maria Machado, Jeanne Theoharris, and Tressie Mcmillan Cottom.

    “The Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize is a testament to the essential work of librarians and writers. In the midst of extreme change and isolation, they help us fathom complex questions and articulate overwhelming feeling; help us connect to each other and our society; and help us imagine where to go from here,” said Linda E. Johnson, the President and CEO of Brooklyn Public Library. “The 2020 longlist reflects many facets of the painful history with which we are currently grappling, and reminds us that if we want to build a better future, reading is crucial.”

    The shortlist will be announced mid-October and the winner in November. A hearty congrats to all!

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    2020 Longlist for the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize

    Nonfiction

    Erika Lee, America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States

    Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross, A Black Women’s History of the United States

    Robert Kolker, Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family

    Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes From the Women That A Movement Forgot

    Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir

    Kai Cheng Thom, I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl’s Notes from the End of the World

    Ian Urbina, The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier

    Ruha Benjamin, Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code

    Fiction/Poetry

    Rivers Solomon (with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes), The Deep

    Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Gods of Jade and Shadow

    Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

    Nicole Dennis-Benn, Patsy

    Natalie Diaz, Postcolonial Love Poem

    Erin Morgenstern, The Starless Sea

    Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, This is How You Lose The Time War

    Jenny Offill, Weather

    book prizes Brooklyn Eagles Brooklyn Public Library Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize

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