Believer Book Award

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Believer Book Award was an American literary award presented yearly by The Believer magazine between 2005 and 2021. The award was given to those novels and story collections, nonfiction books or essay collections, poetry collections, and, beginning in 2021 (awarded to books published in 2020), works of graphic narrative that the magazine's editors thought were the "strongest and most under-appreciated" of the year. [1] A shortlist and longlist were announced for each genre, along with readers' favorites, then a final winner was selected by the magazine's editors.

Contents

The inaugural award was in 2005 for books published in 2004. The last award was given in 2021, when the magazine ceased production. The magazine was bought by McSweeney's in 2022 and resumed publication. [2] It is not known whether the book award will also resume.

Winners and shortlist

2004–2018

The year below denotes when the books were published; the award is announced the following year. Thus below, the inaugural 2004 books were announced in early to mid-2005. From 2004 to 2018, a single award was presented. Beginning in 2019, awards were presented in categories.

Award winners and shortlists, 2004-2018
YearAuthorTitleResultRef.
2004 Sam Lipsyte Home LandWinner [3]
Lucy Ellmann Dot in the UniverseShortlist [4]
Francisco Goldman The Divine Husband
Michelle de Kretser The Hamilton Case
Selah Saterstrom The Pink Institution
2005 Sesshu Foster Atomik Aztex Winner [5]
John Wray Canaan's TongueShortlist [6]
Tom Bissell God Lives in St. Petersburg
Trinie Dalton Wide Eyed
Aimee Bender Willful Creatures
2006 Cormac McCarthy The Road Winner [7]
2007 Tom McCarthy Remainder Winner [8]
Alain Mabanckou African PsychoShortlist [9]
Joe Weisberg An Ordinary Spy
Elizabeth Hand Generation Loss
Jesse Ball Samedi the Deafness
Gerard Donovan Sunless
Selah Saterstrom The Meat and Spirit Plan
Lydie Salvayre The Power of Flies
Miranda Mellis The Revisionist
Steve Erickson Zeroville
2008 Emily Perkins Novel About My WifeWinner [10] [11]
Tod Wodicka All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be WellShortlist [12]
Shannon Burke Black Flies
Jim Krusoe Girl Factory
John Olson Souls of Wind
Toby Olson Tampico
Samantha Hunt The Invention of Everything Else
Mary Ruefle The Most of It
2009 Percival Everett I Am Not Sidney Poitier Winner [13]
Mary Robison One D.O.A., One on the WayShortlist [14]
Blake Butler Scorch Atlas
Christopher MillerThe Cardboard Universe: A Guide to the World of Phoebus K. Dank
Padgett Powell The Interrogative Mood
2010 James Hynes Next Winner [15]
Kira Henehan Orion You Came and You Took All My Marbles Shortlist [16]
Paul Murray Skippy Dies
Danielle Dutton Sprawl
Grace Krilanovich The Orange Eats Creeps
2011 Ben Lerner Leaving the Atocha Station Winner [17] [18]
Helen DeWitt Lightning RodsShortlist [19] [20] [21]
Lars Iyer Spurious
Jesse Ball The Curfew
Michelle Latiolais Widow
2012 Tamara Faith Berger MaidenheadWinner [22]
Sergio De La Pava A Naked SingularityShortlist [23]
Barbara Browning I'm Trying to Reach You
Karl Ove Knausgård My Struggle
Jim Krusoe Parsifal
2013 Rebecca Lee Bobcat and Other StoriesWinner [24]
Bennett Sims A Questionable ShapeShortlist [25]
Keith Ridgway Hawthorn and Child
Kiese Laymon Long Division
Fiona Maazel Woke Up Lonely
2014 Ottessa Moshfegh McGlueWinner [26]
Valeria Luiselli Faces in the CrowdShortlist [27]
Diane Cook Man V. Nature
Elizabeth McCracken Thunderstruck and Other Stories
Antoine Volodine Writers
2017 Matthew Rohrer The OthersWinner
Leyna Krow I’m Fine, But You Appear to Be SinkingShortlist [28]
Andrew Durbin MacArthur Park
Jenny Zhang Sour Heart
Deepak Unnikrishnan Temporary People
2018 Rita Bullwinkel Belly UpWinner [29]
Shelley Jackson Riddance; Or: The Sybil Joines Vocational School for Ghost Speakers & Hearing-Mouth ChildrenShortlist [29]
Hideo Yokoyama , trans. by Louise Heal Kawai Seventeen
Mathias Énard Tell Them of Battles, Kings,
Ben Passmore Your Black Friend and Other Strangers

2019–present

The year below denotes when the books were published; the award is announced the following year. Thus below, the inaugural 2004 books were announced in early to mid-2005. From 2004 to 2018, a single award was presented. Beginning in 2019, awards were presented in categories.

Award winners and shortlists, 2019–present
YearCategoryAuthorTitleResultRef.
2019 Fiction Ebony Flowers Hot CombWinner [30] [31]
Donatella Di Pietrantonio trans. by Ann Goldstein A Girl Returned Shortlist [30] [31]
Sarah Rose Etter The Book of X
Adam Ehrlich Sachs The Organs of Sense
Hebe Uhart , trans. by Maureen Shaughnessy The Scent of Buenos Aires
Nonfiction Trisha Low Socialist RealismWinner [30] [31]
Emmanuel Carrère , trans. by John Lambert97,196 WordsShortlist [30] [31]
Andrea Long Chu Females
Keum Suk Gendry-Kim , trans. by Janet Hong Grass
Heather Christle The Crying Book
Poetry Deborah Landau Soft TargetsWinner [30] [31]
Cameron Awkward-Rich DispatchShortlist [30] [31]
Steve HealeySafe Houses I Have Known
Franny Choi Soft Science
Christopher Kondrich Valuing
2020 Fiction Vigdis Hjorth , trans. by Charlotte Barslund Long Live the Post Horn! Winner [32] [33]
Souvankham Thammavongsa How to Pronounce Knife Shortlist [32] [33]
Lisa Robertson The Baudelaire Fractal
Nathalie Léger The White Dress
Peter Cameron What Happens at Night
Graphic NarrativeJonathan HillOdessaWinner [32] [33]
Vivian Chong and Georgia Webber Dancing after TENShortlist [32] [33]
Lawrence Lindell From Truth with Truth
Gipi, trans. by Jaime RichardsOne Story
Danny NobleShame Pudding: A Graphic Memoir
Nonfiction Ashon T. Crawley The Lonely LettersWinner [32] [33]
Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn A Fish Growing LungsShortlist [32] [33]
Emerson Whitney Heaven
Namwali Serpell Stranger Faces
Emily J. Lordi The Meaning of Soul: Black Music and Resilience Since the 1960s
Poetry Yona Harvey You Don’t Have to Go to Mars For LoveWinner [32] [33]
Candice Wuehle Death Industrial ComplexShortlist [32] [33]
Noah Falck Exclusions
John Murillo Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry
Tess Taylor Rift Zone

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Believer Book Award" Archived 2011-03-05 at the Wayback Machine , The Millions , March 3, 2011
  2. ↑ "What Happened to The Believer?". The New York Times. May 16, 2022. Retrieved April 5, 2025.
  3. ↑ "The Believer Book Award 2004 winner". The Believer. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  4. ↑ "The Believer Book Award 2004 finalists". The Believer. March–April 2005. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  5. ↑ "The Believer Book Award 2005 winner". The Believer. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  6. ↑ "The Believer Book Award 2005 finalists". The Believer. March–April 2006. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  7. ↑ "The Believer Book Award 2006 winner". The Believer. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  8. ↑ "The Believer Book Award 2007 winner". The Believer. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  9. ↑ "The Believer Book Award 2007 finalists". The Believer. March–April 2008. Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  10. ↑ "The Believer Book Award 2008 winner". The Believer. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Emily Perkins Wins Fifth Annual Believer Book Award". Poets & Writers . March 23, 2009. Archived from the original on April 15, 2015. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
  12. ↑ "The Believer Book Award 2008 finalists". The Believer. March–April 2009. Archived from the original on October 21, 2013. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  13. ↑ "The Believer Book Award 2009 winner". The Believer. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  14. ↑ "The Believer Book Award 2009 finalists". The Believer. March–April 2010. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  15. ↑ "The Believer Book Award 2010 winner". The Believer. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  16. ↑ "The Believer Book Award 2010 finalists". The Believer. March–April 2011. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  17. ↑ "The Believer Book Award 2011 winner". The Believer. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  18. ↑ "Heather Christle and Ben Lerner Win Believer Awards". Poets & Writers . May 1, 2012. Archived from the original on April 15, 2015. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
  19. ↑ "The Believer Book Award 2011 finalists". The Believer. March–April 2012. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  20. ↑ Jaesung Lee (March 1, 2011). "The Believer's book award finalists include Grace Krilanovich". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on July 10, 2012. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
  21. ↑ "Small Presses Dominate Believer Book Prize Shortlist". Poets & Writers . March 5, 2012. Archived from the original on September 30, 2012. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
  22. ↑ "The Believer Book Award 2013 finalists". The Believer. March–April 2013. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  23. ↑ Mark Medley (April 29, 2013). "Tamara Faith Berger wins The Believer Book Award". National Post . Archived from the original on June 29, 2013. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  24. ↑ "Announcing the 2013 Believer Book and Poetry Award Winners". The Believer. May 2014. Archived from the original on May 2, 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2014.
  25. ↑ "The Believer Book Award 2014 finalists". The Believer. March–April 2014. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  26. ↑ "The Believer Book Award". The Believer. November 2015. Archived from the original on November 24, 2015. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
  27. ↑ "The Believer Book Award 2015 finalists". The Believer. March–April 2015. Archived from the original on April 7, 2015. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  28. ↑ "The Believer Book Award". The Believer. Archived from the original on December 18, 2018. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  29. 1 2 "The 2018 Believer Book Awards". The Believer. Archived from the original on July 19, 2019. Retrieved July 18, 2019.
  30. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "The 2019 Believer Book Awards". The Believer. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved July 23, 2020.
  31. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "The Believer Book Awards Go to Trisha Low and Deborah Landau". Poetry Foundation. Archived from the original on July 24, 2020. Retrieved July 23, 2020.
  32. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "The 2020 Believer Book Awards Winners and Finalists". The Believer. Archived from the original on May 18, 2021. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  33. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Believer Book Awards, Skylight Booksellers Form Union, and More". Poets and Writers. Archived from the original on January 23, 2022. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
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