The shortlist has been chosen for the $35,000 2025 Aspen Words Literary Prize, which is sponsored by Aspen Words, a program of the Aspen Institute and honors "a work of fiction that illuminates a vital contemporary issue and demonstrates the transformative power of literature on thought and culture." The winner will be announced April 23.
The shortlist:
James by Percival Everett (Doubleday)
Before the Mango Ripens by Afabwaje Kurian (Dzanc Books)
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange (Knopf)
There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven by Ruben Reyes Jr. (Mariner Books)
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Avid Reader Press)
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The New Literary Project has chosen a shortlist of five finalists for the $50,000 Joyce Carol Oates Prize, which "celebrates fiction writers of consequence--short stories and/or novels--at the relative midpoint of a burgeoning career." The winner, to be named in April, will be in brief residence at the University of California, Berkeley, and in the Bay Area, including Saint Mary's College of California, in October. The finalists and their most recent publications are:
Jennine Capó Crucet, Say Hello to My Little Friend (Simon & Schuster)
Sarah Manguso, Liars (Hogarth)
Julia Phillips, Bear (Hogarth)
Morgan Talty, Fire Exit (Tin House)
Willy Vlautin, The Horse (Harper)