Raven Leilani has won the 2020 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.
December 4, 2020, 10:33am
The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, first awarded in 2006, was created to honor the best debut fiction of the year. The winner receives a $15,000 cash prize and each shortlisted author receives $1,000. Previous winners include Tommy Orange and Viet Than Nguyen.
This year, the winner, selected from a seven-title shortlist, is Raven Leilani, for her incredible debut novel Luster. De’Shawn Charles Winslow, one of this year’s panelists and the 2019 winner for the prize, presented the award to Leilani yesterday at the Center for Fiction’s Annual Awards Benefit.
You can watch Leilani’s acceptance speech and the entire Center for Fiction benefit by heading here and here, respectively.
A hearty congrats!
