Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize

Last updated

The Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize is an annual award presented by the New Literary Project to recognize mid-career writers of fiction. [1] [2] "Mid-career writer" is defined by the project as "an author who has published at least two notable books of fiction, and who has yet to receive capstone recognition such as a Pulitzer or a MacArthur." [3] The prize, which carries a monetary award of $50,000, was established in 2017 and is administered by the New Literary Project, a collaboration of the Lafayette Library and Learning Center Foundation of Lafayette, California and the Department of English of the University of California, Berkeley. [4]

Contents

Each year the longlist of finalists for the prize – who are selected by publishers, agents, authors, and author representatives – is announced in the fall of the year before, and the shortlist in early spring of the presenting year. The winner of the award is then announced in late spring. The winner gives reading in the San Francisco Bay area and receives a two-week residency in Lafayette and Berkeley. Shortlisted finalists receive $2,000. [4]

The prize is named after author Joyce Carol Oates, [3] and has been referred to as the Simpson Family Literary Prize and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. Joyce Carol Oates is an honorary member of the project's board of directors, and has served several times as their artist-in-residence. [1] The choice of a prize for a mid-career writer was a considered one. Joseph Di Prisco, the project's founding chairman says "There are too damn many 'emerging writer' prizes — what about emerged writers? ... Ninety-five percent of publishers’ catalogs are made up of writers in the middle of their careers, but unless you're J. K. Rowling or Stephen King, you're not on the best-seller lists. You need support." [1]

The New Literary Project was founded in 2015 by the Lafayette Library, the UC Berkeley English Department, and the Contra Costa County Library. [4] Its purpose is to foster fiction writing through educational outreach in schools and universities, and to celebrate and support authors. [5]

Recipients

Prize winners and finalists
YearAuthorTitleResultRef.
2017 T. Geronimo Johnson Welcome to BraggsvilleWinner [6]
2018 Anthony Marra The Tsar of Love and TechnoWinner [6]
Ben Fountain Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk [7]
Samantha Hunt The Dark Dark
Karan Mahajan The Association of Small Bombs
Martin Pousson Black Sheep Boy: A Novel in Stories
2019 Laila Lalami The Moor's Account Winner [6]
Rachel Kushner The Mars Room [8]
Valeria Luiselli Lost Children Archive
Sigrid NunezThe Friend
Anne RaeffWinter Kept Us Warm: A Novel
Amor Towles A Gentleman in Moscow
2020 Daniel Mason The Winter Soldier Winner [1] [9]
Chris Bachelder The Throwback SpecialFinalist [10] [11]
Maria Dahvana Headley The Mere Wife
Rebecca Makkai The Great Believers
Peter Orner Maggie Brown & Others
Dexter Palmer Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen
Kevin Wilson Nothing to SeeHere
2021 Danielle Valore Evans The Office of Historical Corrections Winner [12]
Jenny Offill WeatherFinalist [13] [14]
Darin Strauss The Queen of Tuesday
Lysley Tenorio The Son of Good Fortune
2022 Lauren Groff Matrix Winner [15] [16]
Christopher Beha The Index of Self-Destructive ActsFinalist [17] [18]
Percival Everett The Trees
Katie Kitamura Intimacies
Jason Mott Hell of a Book
2023 Manuel Muñoz The ConsequencesWinner [19]
Rabih Alameddine The Wrong End of the TelescopeFinalist [20]
Clare Beams The Illness Lesson
James Hannaham Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta
David Means Two Nurses, Smoking
2024 Ben Fountain Devil Makes ThreeWinner [6] [21]
Jamel Brinkley WitnessFinalist [22] [23]
Patricia Engel The Faraway World
Idra Novey Take What You Need
Bennett Sims Other Minds and Other Stories

Related Research Articles

The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama. The award is sponsored by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation and has been presented since 1985. As of 2021, winners receive US$50,000.

The Orwell Prize is a British prize for political writing. The Prize is awarded by The Orwell Foundation, an independent charity governed by a board of trustees. Four prizes are awarded each year: one each for a fiction and non-fiction book on politics, one for journalism and one for "Exposing Britain's Social Evils" ; between 2009 and 2012, a fifth prize was awarded for blogging. In each case, the winner is the short-listed entry which comes closest to George Orwell's own ambition to "make political writing into an art".

The Dylan Thomas Prize is a leading prize for young writers presented annually. The prize, named in honour of the Welsh writer and poet Dylan Thomas, brings international prestige and a remuneration of £30,000 (~$46,000). It is open to published writers in the English language under the age of forty. The prize was originally awarded biennially but became an annual award in 2010. Entries for the prize are submitted by the publisher, editor, or agent; for theatre plays and screenplays, by the producer.

The Thurber Prize for American Humor, named after American humorist James Thurber, recognizes outstanding contributions in humor writing. The prize is given out by the Thurber House. It was first awarded irregularly, but since 2004 has been bestowed annually. In 2015, the finalists were for the first time, all women. Winners of the Thurber Prize have included authors from an array of diverse backgrounds, from The Daily Show hosts Jon Stewart and Trevor Noah to The New Yorker staff writers Calvin Trillin and Ian Frazier, as well as university professors Julie Schumacher and Harrison Scott Key.

<i>Los Angeles Times</i> Book Prize American literary awards

Since 1980, the Los Angeles Times has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The Los Angeles Times Book Prize currently has nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction, history, mystery/thriller, poetry, science and technology, and young adult fiction. In addition, the Robert Kirsch Award is presented annually to a living author with a substantial connection to the American West. It is named in honor of Robert Kirsch, the Los Angeles Times book critic from 1952 until his death in 1980 whose idea it was to establish the book prizes.

The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Cleveland poet and philanthropist Edith Anisfield Wolf and originally administered by the Saturday Review, the awards have been administered by the Cleveland Foundation since 1963.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yiyun Li</span> Chinese writer and professor (born 1972)

Yiyun Li is a Chinese-born writer and professor in the United States. Her short stories and novels have won several awards, including the PEN/Hemingway Award and Guardian First Book Award for A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, the 2020 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award for Where Reasons End, and the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for The Book of Goose. Her short story collection Wednesday's Child was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She is an editor of the Brooklyn-based literary magazine A Public Space.

The PEN/Bernard and Ann Malamud Award honors "excellence in the art of the short story". It is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. The selection committee is composed of PEN/Faulkner directors. The award was first given in 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dayton Literary Peace Prize</span> United States literary award

The Dayton Literary Peace Prize is an annual United States literary award "recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace" that was first awarded in 2006. Awards are given for adult fiction and non-fiction books published at some point within the immediate past year that have led readers to a better understanding of other peoples, cultures, religions, and political views, with the winner in each category receiving a cash prize of $10,000. The award is an offshoot of the Dayton Peace Prize, which grew out of the 1995 peace accords ending the Bosnian War. In 2011, the former "Lifetime Achievement Award" was renamed the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award with a $10,000 honorarium.

The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America. They remain the most prestigious awards in the entire mystery genre. The award for Best Young Adult Mystery was established in 1989 and recognizes works written for ages twelve to eighteen, and grades eight through twelve. Prior to the establishment of this award, the Mystery Writers of America awarded a special Edgar to Katherine Paterson for The Master Puppeteer in 1977.

The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America. They remain the most prestigious awards in the entire mystery genre. Since 1961 they have presented an award in the category of Best Juvenile Mystery Fiction.

The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize is an annual award presented by the Center for Fiction, a non-profit organization in New York City, for the best debut novel. From 2006 to 2011, it was called the John Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize in honor of John Turner Sargent, Sr.. From 2011 to 2014, it was known as the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize, named for Center for Fiction board member Nancy Dunnan and her journalist father Ray W. Flaherty.

The PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection is awarded by the PEN America "to exceptionally talented fiction writers whose debut work — a first novel or collection of short stories ... represent distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise." The winner is selected by a panel of PEN Members made up of three writers or editors. The PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize was originally named the PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship for Writers. The prize awards the debut writer a cash award of US$25,000.

The PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction is awarded by PEN America biennially "to a distinguished book of general nonfiction possessing notable literary merit and critical perspective and illuminating important contemporary issues which have been published in the United States during the previous two calendar years. It is intended that the winning book possess the qualities of intellectual rigor, perspicuity of expression, and stylistic elegance conspicuous in the writings of author and economist John Kenneth Galbraith, whose four dozen books and countless other publications continue to provide an important and incisive commentary on the American social, intellectual and political scene."

The Ferro-Grumley Award is an annual literary award, presented by Publishing Triangle and the Ferro-Grumley Foundation to a book deemed the year's best work of LGBT fiction. The award is presented in memory of writers Robert Ferro and Michael Grumley. It was co-founded in 1988 by Stephen Greco, who continues to direct it as of 2022.

The Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence is an annual national literary award designed to recognize rising African American fiction writers. First awarded in 2007, the prize is underwritten by donors of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation in honor of the literary heritage provided by author Ernest J. Gaines, with the winner receiving a cash award "to support and enable the writer to focus on writing." It has been described as "the nation's biggest prize for African-American writers".

The J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, established in 1999, is a literary award "given annually to aid in the completion of a significant work of nonfiction on a topic of American political or social concern." The prize is given by the Nieman Foundation and by the Columbia University School of Journalism and is intended to "assist in closing the gap between the time and money an author has and the time and money that finishing a book requires.

The Aspen Words Literary Prize, established in 2018, is an annual literary award presented by Aspen Words, a literary center in Aspen, Colorado. The prize is presented to an author for "an influential work of fiction that illuminates a vital contemporary issue and demonstrates the transformative power of literature on thought and culture.” Winners receive a $35,000 prize.

<i>Gods Children Are Little Broken Things</i> 2022 Novel by Arinze Ifeakandu

God's Children Are Little Broken Things was a short story collection written by Nigerian author Arinze Ifeakandu and published by A Public Space in 2022. It provides nine distinct "stories about the joys and tribulations of queer love in contemporary Nigeria".

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Kosman, Joshua (2020-05-12). "Bay Area author and psychiatrist Daniel Mason wins $50,000 Joyce Carol Oates Prize". San Francisco Chronicle . Archived from the original on 2023-04-28. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  2. ↑ Staff (March 5, 2020) "2020 Joyce Carol Oates Prize Finalists" Archived 2020-04-21 at the Wayback Machine Locus
  3. 1 2 "Joyce Carol Oates Prize" Archived 2021-12-16 at the Wayback Machine New Literary Project
  4. 1 2 3 Staff (November 14, 2019) "2020 Simpson/Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize Longlist Finalists Announced" Simpson Literary Project
  5. ↑ https://www.newliteraryproject.org/) Archived 2021-12-16 at the Wayback Machine
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Joyce Carol Oates Prize". The New Literary Project. Archived from the original on 2024-05-28. Retrieved 2022-03-07.
  7. ↑ "2018 JCO Finalists". New Literary Project. Retrieved 2024-10-12.
  8. ↑ "2019 JCO Finalists". New Literary Project. Retrieved 2024-10-12.
  9. ↑ "Awards: Joyce Carol Oates; Helen Bernstein". Shelf Awareness . 2020-05-13. Archived from the original on 2022-10-15. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  10. ↑ Yee, Katie (2020-03-05). "Here's the shortlist for the $50,000 Joyce Carol Oates Prize". Literary Hub . Archived from the original on 2023-12-04. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  11. ↑ Schaub, Michael (2020-03-04). "Joyce Carol Oates Prize Shortlist Announced". Kirkus Reviews . Archived from the original on 2022-01-07. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  12. ↑ "Awards: Ondaatje Shortlist; Joyce Carol Oates Winner". Shelf Awareness . 2021-04-27. Archived from the original on 2023-10-04. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  13. ↑ "Awards: Oates Finalists; Blue Peter Book Winners". Shelf Awareness . 2021-03-11. Archived from the original on 2024-05-28. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  14. ↑ Schaub, Michael (2021-03-10). "Finalists for Joyce Carol Oates Prize Are Revealed". Kirkus Reviews . Archived from the original on 2024-05-28. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  15. ↑ "Awards: Oates Winner; Jhalak Shortlists". Shelf Awareness . 2022-04-20. Archived from the original on 2022-06-24. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
  16. ↑ Firetog, Emily (2022-04-20). "Lauren Groff has won the 2022 Joyce Carol Oates Prize". Literary Hub . Archived from the original on 2023-09-29. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  17. ↑ Schaub, Michael (2022-03-07). "Finalists for Joyce Carol Oates Prize Announced". Kirkus Reviews . Archived from the original on 2024-05-28. Retrieved 2022-03-07.
  18. ↑ "Awards: Joyce Carol Oates, PEN/Faulkner Fiction Finalists". Shelf Awareness . 2022-03-04. Archived from the original on 2024-05-28. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  19. ↑ Schaub, Michael (2023-04-18). "Manuel Muñoz Wins Joyce Carol Oates Prize". Kirkus Reviews . Archived from the original on 2023-04-25. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  20. ↑ "Awards: Joyce Carol Oates Finalists". Shelf Awareness . 2023-03-10. Archived from the original on 2023-03-11. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  21. ↑ "Awards: Joyce Carol Oates Winner". Shelf Awareness . 2024-05-09. Archived from the original on 2024-05-12. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  22. ↑ "Awards: PROSE Winners; Women's Non-Fiction Shortlist; Joyce Carol Oates Finalists". Shelf Awareness . 2024-03-28. Archived from the original on 2024-05-28. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  23. ↑ Schaub, Michael (2024-03-26). "Finalists for Joyce Carol Oates Prize Revealed". Kirkus Reviews. Archived from the original on 2024-04-01. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.