The National Society of Film Critics awarded Scott Eyman the Film Heritage Award on January 4th “for his outstanding books on film artists and epochal shifts in moviemaking, most recently with CHARLIE CHAPLIN VS. AMERICA: WHEN ART, SEX, AND POLITICS COLLIDED, a revelatory study of the nexus of American politics and American pop culture.” Simon & Schuster published CHARLIE CHAPLIN VS AMERICA on October 31, 2023.

Joseph Earl Thomas was awarded the 2024 First Novel Prize for GOD BLESS YOU OTIS SPUNKMEYER at The Center for Fiction Annual Awards Benefit on December 10. The awarded is annually presented to the best debut novel of the year, with a $15,000 prize “in recognition of their contribution to the contemporary literary canon and in support of their ongoing creative career.” The book was selected by a panel of distinguished writers, including Merve Emre, Raven Leilani, Jonathan Lethem, and Tyriek White. Grand Central Publishing published the novel on June 18, 2024.

Sarah Manguso’s LIARS has been longlisted for the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize. The prize annually honors a mid-career fiction writer whose work speaks to the mission and vision of New Literary Project. This prize is awarded not in recognition of a book, but for an author: an already emerged and still emerging author of national consequence—short stories and/or novels—at the relatively middle stage of a burgeoning career. The winner receives a $50,000 award to encourage and support forthcoming work. Finalists are expected to be named in March 2025, and the winner in April 2025. Hogarth published LIARS on July 23, 2024.

BAD DRAWER by Seth Fishman has been selected as a 2024-2025 Arkansas Diamond Primary Award Nominee. The chosen books are aimed at students to “read for their own pleasure and/or inspiration.” Voting will take place in May of 2025. Penguin Workshop published BAD DRAWER on October 25, 2022.

GOD BLESS YOU, OTIS SPUNKMEYER by Joseph Earl Thomas has been longlisted for the 2025 ALA Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. It joins 21 other fiction titles that “showcase truly exceptional writing reflective of powerful experiences, histories, and humanity.” The shortlist will be announced November 12, 2024. Grand Central Publishing published the book on June 18, 2024.

Gregg Hecimovich’s THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HANNAH CRAFTS is a 2024 American Book Award Winner. The Before Columbus Foundation will formally recognize the winners on October 27 at the SF Jazz Center in San Francisco, CA. Ecco published the book on October 17, 2023.

Literary Awards
WAYS AND MEANS by Daniel Lefferts has been longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, which honors the best debut fiction of the year. The shortlist will be announced in September, and the winner will be named in December at the Center for Fiction's annual awards benefit. WAYS AND MEANS was published by The Overlook Press on February 6, 2024.

Ted Chiang, author of collections EXHALATION and STORIES OF YOUR LIFE AND OTHERS, won the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. The award “recognizes writers who have demonstrated exceptional achievement in the short story form,” and is “is one of the nation’s most significant literary prizes for the form.” PEN/Malamud Award Committee Chair Jung Yun says: “Ted Chiang’s stories are an absolute wonder to behold…Not only do they demonstrate his exceptionally high standards for creativity and construction, they also invite readers to think, imagine, and explore unique worlds beyond their own. Whether set in an alternate version of the past, or one possible version of the future, his work prompts important questions that are deeply relevant to how we live today. In doing so, Chiang exemplifies Bernard Malamud’s belief that a short story can produce ‘the surprise and effect of a profound knowledge in a short time.’” Chiang will be honored at the PEN/Malamud Award Ceremony on December 6, 2024. Knopf published EXHALATION on May 7, 2019.

NATURAL BEAUTY by Ling Ling Huang is the winner of the 2024 Lambda Award in Bisexual Fiction. The Lambda Awards celebrate authors “for their outstanding contributions to the queer literary landscape.” Dutton published the book on April 4, 2023.

Jayne Anne Phillips’ NIGHT WATCH is the 2024 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Fiction. The write-up for the award reads: “A beautifully rendered novel set in West Virginia’s Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in the aftermath of the Civil War where a severely wounded Union veteran, a 12-year-old girl and her mother, long abused by a Confederate soldier, struggle to heal… Epic, enthralling, and meticulously crafted, NIGHT WATCH is a stunning chronicle of surviving war and its aftermath.” Knopf published the novel on September 19, 2023.