Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award

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The Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award is an annual literary prize presented by Barnes & Noble for author's debut books.

Contents

It was founded with the aim of recognizing and celebrating exceptional emerging authors who demonstrate outstanding talent and promise in their writing.

Honorees

Early versions of the award were presented as two awards, one for fiction and one for nonfiction, with second and third place recipients. More recent editions present a single award winner with a list of finalists.

1997–2019

Award honorees, 1997–2019
YearCategoryAuthorTitleResultRef
1995Fiction Chang-rae Lee Native Speaker Won [1]
1996Fiction Elizabeth McCracken The Giant's House Won [1]
Nonfiction Anthony Doerr The Shell CollectorWon [1]
1997Fiction J. Robert Lennon The Light of Falling Stars1 [2]
2001Fiction Manil Suri The Death of Vishnu 1 [3]
2004Fiction Monica Ali Brick Lane1 [4]
Zoë Heller What Was She Thinking? 2 [4]
Julie Orringer How to Breath Underwater3 [4]
Nonfiction Jay Griffiths A Sideways Look at Time1 [4]
Christina Lamb The Sewing Circles of Herat2 [4]
Floyd Skloot In the Shadow of Memory3 [4]
2005Fiction Uzodinma Iweala Beasts of No Nation 1 [5] [6]
Kitty Fitzgerald Pigtopia2 [5] [6]
Catherine TudishTenney's Landing3 [5] [6]
Nonfiction Nathaniel Fick One Bullet Away 1 [5] [6]
Martin Moran The Tricky Part 2 [5] [6]
Louise Brown The Dancing Girls of Lahore3 [5] [6]
2006Fiction Ben Fountain Brief Encounters with Che Guevara1 [7]
O. Z. Livaneli Bliss2 [7]
Sam Savage Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife 3 [7]
NonfictionEric BlehmThe Last Season1 [7]
Daniel Mendelsohn The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million 2 [7]
Marilyn Johnson The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries3 [7]
2007Fiction Joshua Ferris Then We Came to the End 1 [8] [9]
Matthew EckThe Farther Shore2 [8]
Vendela Vida Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name 3 [8]
NonfictionKate BraestrupHere If You Need Me1 [8] [9]
Elizabeth Samet Soldier's Heart2 [8]
Yaroslav Trofimov The Siege of Mecca3 [8]
2008Fiction Gin Phillips The Well and the Mine1 [10] [11]
Benjamin Taylor The Book of Getting Even2 [10] [11]
Zachary Lazar Sway3 [10] [11]
Nonfiction David Sheff Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction 1 [10] [11]
Eric Weiner The Geography of Bliss 2 [10] [11]
Nia WynBlue Sky July3 [10] [11]
2009Fiction Victor Lodato Mathilda Savitch1 [12] [13]
Barbara JohnsonMore of this World or Maybe Another2 [12] [13]
C. E. Morgan All the Living 3 [12] [13]
Nonfiction Dave Cullen Columbine 1 [12] [13]
Toby Lester The Fourth Part of the World: The Epic Story of History's Greatest Map2 [12] [13]
Neil WhiteIn the Sanctuary of Outcasts3 [12] [13]
2010Fiction Kim Echlin The Disappeared1 [14] [15]
Eric Puchner Model Home2 [14] [15]
Nic Pizzolatto Galveston3 [14] [15]
NonfictionDavid R. DowThe Autobiography of an Execution1 [14] [15]
Rebecca Skloot The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks 2 [14] [15]
Siddhartha Mukherjee The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer 3 [14] [15]
2011FictionScott O'ConnorUntouchable1 [16] [17]
Alice LaPlanteTurn of Mind2 [16] [17]
Alan Heathcock Volt3 [16] [17]
NonfictionMichael LevyKosher Chinese1 [16] [17]
Annia CiezadloDay of Honey2 [16] [17]
Joshua Cody[sic]3 [16] [17]
2012Fiction Amanda Coplin The Orchardist 1 [18] [19]
Karen Thompson Walker The Age of Miracles 2 [18] [19]
Eowyn Ivey The Snow Child 3 [18] [19]
Nonfiction Cheryl Strayed Wild 1 [18] [19]
Katherine Boo Behind the Beautiful Forevers 2 [18] [19]
Kristen Iversen Full Body Burden3 [18] [19]
2013Fiction Anthony Marra A Constellation of Vital Phenomena 1 [20]
NoViolet Bulawayo We Need New Names 2 [20]
Rebecca Lee Bobcat and Other Stories3 [20]
NonfictionJustin St. GermainSon of a Gun1 [20]
Sonali Deraniyagala Wave 2 [20]
Domenica Ruta With or Without You3 [20]
2014Fiction Evie Wyld All the Birds, Singing 1 [21] [22]
Molly Antopol The UnAmericans2 [21] [22]
Arna Bontemps Hemenway Elegy on Kinderklavier3 [21] [22]
NonfictionBryce AndrewsBadluck Way: A Year on the Ragged Edge of the West1 [21] [22]
Caitlin Doughty Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory2 [21] [22]
Will HarlanUntamed: The Wildest Woman in America and the Fight for Cumberland Island3 [21] [22]
2015Fiction Mia Alvar In the Country1 [23] [24]
Angela Flournoy The Turner House 2 [23] [24]
Sophie McManusThe Unfortunates3 [23] [24]
Nonfiction Jill Leovy Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America1 [23] [24]
George HodgmanBettyville2 [23] [24]
Amy Ellis Nutt Becoming Nicole3 [23] [24]
2016FictionAbby GeniThe Lightkeepers1 [25]
Yaa Gyasi Homegoing 2 [25]
Jung YunShelter3 [25] [26]
Nonfiction Matthew Desmond Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City 1 [25]
Hope Jahren Lab Girl 2 [25]
Patrick Phillips Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America3 [25]
2017Fiction Patty Yumi Cottrell Sorry to Disrupt the Peace 1 [27]
Megan Hunter The End We Start From2 [27]
Lisa Ko The Leavers 3 [27]
Nonfiction Jessica Bruder Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century 1 [27]
Leah CarrollDown City: A Daughter's Story of Love, Memory and Murder2 [27]
Michael Twitty The Cooking Gene: A Journey through African American Culinary History in the Old South 3 [27]
2018FictionPaul HowarthOnly Killers and Thieves1 [28] [29] [30]
Tommy Orange There There 2 [28] [30]
Fatima Farheen Mirza A Place for Us 3 [28] [30]
Nonfiction Kiese Laymon Heavy1 [28] [29] [30]
Shane Bauer American Prison 2 [28] [30]
Tara Westover Educated 3 [28] [30]
2019Fiction Claire Adam The Golden ChildWon [31] [32]
Lydia FitzpatrickLights All Night LongShortlisted [32]
Ocean Vuong On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Shortlisted [32]
Regina Porter The TravelersShortlisted [32]
Nonfiction Damon Young What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You BlackerWon [31] [32]
Ocean Vuong On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Shortlisted [32]
Saeed Jones How We Fight for Our Lives Shortlisted [32]
Jaquira Díaz Ordinary GirlsShortlisted [32]
Jia Tolentino Trick Mirror Shortlisted [32]

2022–present

Award honorees, 2022–present
YearAuthorTitleResultRef.
2022 Tess Gunty The Rabbit Hutch Won [33]
John Manuel AriasWhere There Was FireShortlisted [33]
Alice Winn In MemoriamShortlisted [33]
Brinda CharryThe East IndianShortlisted [33]
Henry Hoke Open ThroatShortlisted [33]
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Chain-Gang All-Stars Shortlisted [33]
2023 Amanda Peters The Berry PickersWon [33]
Louise Kennedy Tresspasses Shortlisted [33]
Sequoia Nagamatsu How High We Go in the DarkShortlisted [33]
Morgan Talty Night of the Living RezShortlisted [33]
Sarah Thankam Mathews All This Could Be DifferentShortlisted [33]
Laura WarrellSweet, Soft, Plenty RhythmShortlisted [33]
Donna Tartt The Secret History Shortlisted [33]

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References

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