Here’s the shortlist for the Center for Fiction’s 2025 First Novel Prize.
Today, the Center for Fiction announced the shortlist for their annual First Novel Prize, which was judged this year by Xochitl Gonzalez, Adam Haslett, Tracy O’Neill, and Joseph Earl Thomas (winner of the 2024 First Novel Prize). The shortlisted authors will each be awarded $1,000 and the winner, who will be announced in December, will receive $15,000 “in recognition of their contribution to contemporary literature and in support of their ongoing creative career.”
“In this age of attention overload, it can be so hard for first-time novelists, who’ve put their hearts and souls into these books, to find an audience,” said Gonzalez in a statement. “Through the First Novel Prize, it’s wonderful to be able to elevate titles that might have otherwise been overlooked. There is something for everyone on this list—but what every book holds is marvelous storytelling with the promise of even more to come in the future.”
Here’s the shortlist:
Colwill Brown, We Pretty Pieces of Flesh
(Macmillan/Henry Holt and Co.)
Rickey Fayne, The Devil Three Times
(Hachette Book Group/Little, Brown and Company)
Justin Haynes, Ibis
(Abrams/The Overlook Press)
Alejandro Heredia, Loca
(Simon & Schuster)
Darrell Kinsey, Natch
(University of Iowa Press)
Mariam Rahmani, Liquid
(Hachette Book Group/Algonquin Books)
Shubha Sunder, Optional Practical Training
(Graywolf Press)
