Shalom Auslander is an American novelist, memoirist, and essayist. He grew up in a strict, Orthodox neighborhood in Monsey, New York, where he describes himself as having been "raised like a veal", a reference to his strict religious upbringing. His writing style is notable for its existentialist themes, biting satire and black humor. His non-fiction often draws comparisons to David Sedaris, while his fiction has drawn comparisons to Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, and Groucho Marx. His books have been translated into over a dozen languages and are published around the world.
The VCU Cabell First Novelist Award is an American literary award for debut novels. It has been presented annually since 2002 on behalf of Virginia Commonwealth University's MFA in Creative Writing Program.
Seraphina is a 2012 fantasy novel by Rachel Hartman and is her debut novel. The book was published on July 10, 2012, by Random House Publishing and was ranked at number 8 The New York Times Best Seller list in its first week of publication. Seraphina was awarded the 2013 William C. Morris Award for the best young adult work by a debut author. Foreign language rights to the novel have been sold in twenty languages, including Spanish and Hebrew. A sequel entitled Shadow Scale came out in 2015,. A companion novel Tess of the Road set in the same milieu was published in 2018, followed by its own sequel, In the Serpent's Wake (2022).
Shani Boianjiu is an Israeli author. Her debut novel, The People of Forever Are Not Afraid, was released in 2012, and has been published in 23 countries. In 2011 the National Book Foundation named her a 5 under 35 honoree.
Chinelo Okparanta is a Nigerian-American novelist and short-story writer. She was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, where she was raised until the age of 10, when she emigrated to the United States with her family.
The Turner House is a 2015 debut novel by Angela Flournoy. The novel was shortlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction and later won the VCU First Novelist Award.
Angie Thomas is an American young adult author, best known for writing The Hate U Give (2017). Her second young adult novel, On the Come Up, was released on February 25, 2019.
Carolina (Caro) De Robertis is a Uruguayan-American author and professor of creative writing at San Francisco State University. They are the author of five novels and the editor of an award-winning anthology, Radical Hope (2017), which include essays by such writers as Junot Diaz and Jane Smiley. They are also well known for their translational work, frequently translating Spanish pieces.
Marriage of a Thousand Lies is a novel by Sri Lankan-American author SJ Sindu, published by Soho Press in 2017. It tells the story of Lucky and Kris, two gay South Asian-Americans whose parents immigrated from Sri Lanka, who marry to stay in the closet.
Bahni Turpin is an American audiobook narrator and stage and screen actor based out of Los Angeles. Her audiobook career includes some of the most popular and critically-acclaimed books in recent years, including The Help and The Hate U Give. She has won 9 Audie Awards, including Audiobook of the Year for Children of Blood and Bone; 14 Earphone Awards; and 2 Odyssey Awards. Turpin has also earned a place on AudioFile magazine's list of Golden Voice Narrators, and in 2016, she was named Audible's Narrator of the Year. In 2018, Audible inducted her into the Narrator Hall of Fame.
Joy McCullough is an American author of young adult fiction. She is best known for her verse novel Blood Water Paint. She lives in Seattle, Washington. She attended Northwestern University.
Raven Leilani Baptiste is an American writer who publishes under the name Raven Leilani. Her debut novel Luster was released in 2020 to critical acclaim.
Oh William! is a novel by American writer Elizabeth Strout, published on October 19, 2021, by Random House. The novel returns to the fictional rural town of Amgash, Illinois, from Strout's My Name Is Lucy Barton (2016) and Anything Is Possible (2017).
Hernan Diaz is a writer. His 2017 novel In the Distance was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He also received a Whiting Award. For his second novel Trust, he was awarded the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
The Turnout is a mystery novel by Megan Abbott published August 3, 2021 by G.P. Putnam's Sons. That year, it won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller.
The Rabbit Hutch is a 2022 debut novel by writer Tess Gunty and winner of the 2022 National Book Award for Fiction. Gunty won the inaugural Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize for the novel.
Dawnie Walton is an American journalist and novelist. She is known for her novel, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, which won the 2022 Aspen Words Literary Prize, the 2022 Virginia Commonwealth University Cabell First Novelist Award, and was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction.
Monica West is an American writer. She is the author of the novel Revival Season, a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick and a finalist for the 2022 Virginia Commonwealth University Cabell First Novelist Award.
Matthew Lloyd Davies is a British theatre and voice actor. Trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School; Lloyd Davies has appeared in theatrical productions directed by Terry Hands, Jonathan Holloway, and Nicholas Hytner; and narrated audiobooks by Henry Porter and Dawnie Walton. He won the Audio Publishers Association 2018 Audie Award for Humour and jointly won the 2022 Audie Award for Fiction.
Jonathan Escoffery is a Jamaican-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.
