Zain Khalid has won the 2023 Young Lions Award.
The 23rd Young Lions Fiction Award, handed out by the New York Public Library to a novel or collection of short stories, went to Brothers Alive author Zain Khalid at a June 15th ceremony.
The $10,000 award recognizes a writer under 35, and was judged this year by Venita Blackburn, Jonas Hassen Khemiri, and Catherine Lacey.
Per a synopsis given by the New York Public Library, Brothers Alive follows:
three adopted brothers—Dayo, Iseul, and Youssef—who live above a mosque in Staten Island with their imam father. Youssef shares everything with his brothers, except for one secret: he sees a shapeshifting, hallucinatory double called Brother, an imaginary friend who seems absolutely real.
Khalid’s debut novel was also nominated for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize. He has also written for N+1, Astra Magazine, and McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, among other outlets (ahem here he is writing sharply about death for Lit Hub), and is fiction editor for The Drift.
The shortlist included:
Fatimah Asghar for When We Were Sisters
Elaine Hsieh Chou for Disorientation
Reyes Ramirez for The Book of Wanderers
David Sanchez for All Day is a Long Time
Patience and Fortitude no doubt approve. Congrats, Zain!
