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.

Ed Park's SAME BED DIFFERENT DREAMS was honored as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. The write-up for the nomination reads: “An inventive postmodern novel that moves from brutal Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula to a lonely Korean American boy’s passion for the Buffalo Sabres, interlinked narratives that jump historical and imaginary time zones with humor, sorrow and irreverence….From the acclaimed author of PERSONAL DAYS, SAME BED DIFFERENT DREAMS is a raucously funny feat of imagination and a thrilling meld of history and fiction that pulls readers into another dimension—one in which utopia is possible.” Random House published the book on November 7, 2023.

Monica Brashears’ debut novel HOUSE OF COTTON was named a finalist for The New York Public Library’s 24th annual Young Lions Fiction Award. The winner will be announced via an awards ceremony on June 13 at 7pm. Flatiron Books published the book on April 4, 2023.

Idra Novey is a finalist for the 2024 Joyce Carol Oates Prize, which "celebrates emerged and continually emerging authors of major consequence—short stories and/or novels—at the relative midpoint of a burgeoning career.” The NewLit Board of Directors will announce the winner in mid-April. Viking published TAKE WHAT YOU NEED on March 14, 2023.