Oscar Hokeah (born 25 December 1975) is a Native American writer, best known for his debut novel Calling for a Blanket Dance (2022), which won the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and was on the Aspen Words Literary Prize shortlist in 2023. A graduate of the University of Oklahoma and the Institute of American Indian Arts, he is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
Geraldine Brooks is an Australian American journalist and novelist whose 2005 novel March won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Wesley Studi is a Native American actor and film producer. He has garnered critical acclaim and awards throughout his career, particularly for his portrayal of Native Americans in film. In 2019, he received an Academy Honorary Award, becoming the first Native American as well as the first Indigenous person from North America to be honored by the academy.
Navarre Scotte Momaday was a Kiowa and American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. His novel House Made of Dawn was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969, and is considered the first major work of the Native American Renaissance.
Mohsin Hamid is a British Pakistani novelist, writer and brand consultant. His novels are Moth Smoke (2000), The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (2013), Exit West (2017), and The Last White Man (2022).
Joy Harjo is an American poet, musician, playwright, and author. She served as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold that honor. She was also only the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to have served three terms. Harjo is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and belongs to Oce Vpofv. She is an important figure in the second wave of the literary Native American Renaissance of the late 20th century. She studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts, completed her undergraduate degree at University of New Mexico in 1976, and earned an MFA degree at the University of Iowa in its creative writing program.
David John Chariandy is a Canadian writer and academic, presently working as a Professor of English literature at the University of Toronto. His 2017 novel Brother won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and Toronto Book Award.
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.
Akwaeke Emezi is a Nigerian fiction writer and video artist, best known for their novels Freshwater (2018) and Pet and the New York Times bestselling work The Death of Vivek Oji. Emezi is a generalist who writes speculative fiction, romance, memoir, and poetry for both young adults and adults with mostly LGBT themes. Their work has earned them several awards and nominations including the Otherwise Award and Commonwealth Short Story Prize. In 2021, Time featured them as a Next Generation Leader.
John Smelcer is an American poet and novelist whose claims to Native American (Ahtna) heritage and citizenship have been the subject of multiple controversies.
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is the debut novel by Vietnamese American poet Ocean Vuong, published by Penguin Press on June 4, 2019. An epistolary novel, it is written in the form of a letter from a Vietnamese American son to his illiterate mother. It was a finalist for the 2020 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and was longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction.
C Pam Zhang is an American writer. Her debut novel, How Much of These Hills Is Gold, was released by Riverhead Books in 2020 and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Fiction and longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize; she was named a "5 Under 35" writer by the National Book Foundation subsequent to its release. Her second novel, Land of Milk and Honey, was released in 2023.
Jamel Brinkley is an American writer. His debut story collection, A Lucky Man (2018), was the winner of the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award and the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. It was also a finalist for the National Book Award, The Story Prize, the John Leonard Award, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize. He currently teaches fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Memorial is the debut novel by Bryan Washington. It was published by Riverhead Books on October 27, 2020, to acclaim from book critics.
Brandon Hobson is a fiction writer primarily known for literary fiction novels. His novel, Where the Dead Sit Talking (2018), was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction.
Abundance is a 2021 novel by Jakob Guanzon about wealth inequality and human worth. It was published by Greywolf Press and is Guanzon's first novel. It covers concepts including inherited medical debt, poverty, food security, criminal justice system, and illegal drug trade. In 2021, the novel was longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction and the Aspen Words Literary Prize.
The Other Americans is a mystery novel written by Moroccan American novelist Laila Lalami. The novel was published in 2019 by Pantheon Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
Jason Mott is an American novelist and poet. His fourth novel, Hell of a Book, won the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction.
Hell of a Book is a 2021 book by Jason Mott. It won the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction.
Alejandro Varela is an American fiction writer. His novel The Town of Babylon was a finalist for a National Book Award in 2022.
Jonathan Escoffery is an American writer. His debut novel, If I Survive You, was longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award for Fiction and shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize, among other honors. The novel was well received by critics with reviews applauding Escoffery's humor, narrative style, and exploration of identity in the immigrant experience.