Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award

Last updated

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 BrownThe 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]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pulitzer Prize for History</span> American award for history books

The Pulitzer Prize for History, administered by Columbia University, is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished book about the history of the United States. Thus it is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were awarded that year. The Pulitzer Prize program has also recognized some historical work with its Biography prize, from 1917, and its General Non-Fiction prize, from 1962.

The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living American citizens. The winner receives US$15,000 and each of four runners-up receives US$5000. Finalists read from their works at the presentation ceremony in the Great Hall of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. The organization claims it to be "the largest peer-juried award in the country." The award was first given in 1981.

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is an international children's literary award established by the Swedish government in 2002 to honour the Swedish children's author Astrid Lindgren (1907–2002). The prize is five million SEK, making it the richest award in children's literature and one of the richest literary prizes in the world. The annual cost of 10 million SEK is financed with tax money.

The Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each year by the Society of Authors. Set up by William Somerset Maugham in 1947 the awards enable young writers to enrich their work by gaining experience in foreign countries. The awards go to writers under the age of 35 with works published in the year before the award; the work can be either non-fiction, fiction or poetry.

<i>The Tricky Part</i> 2005 book by Martin Moran

The Tricky Part: One Boy's Fall from Trespass into Grace is a 2005 non-fiction book by Martin Moran.

<i>Beasts of No Nation</i> Book by Uzodinma Iweala

Beasts of No Nation is a 2005 novel by the Nigerian-American author Uzodinma Iweala, that takes its title from Fela Kuti's 1989 album of the same name. The book won the 2005 Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award. It was adapted as a movie in 2015.

The Golden Kite Awards are given annually by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, an international children's writing organization, to recognize excellence in children’s literature. The award is a golden medallion showing a child flying a kite. Instituted in 1973, the Golden Kite Awards are the only children’s literary award judged by a jury of peers. Eligible books must be written or illustrated by SCBWI members, and submitted either by publishers or individuals.

<i>The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million</i> Book by Daniel Mendelsohn

The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million is a non-fiction memoir by Daniel Mendelsohn, published in September 2006, which has received critical acclaim as a new perspective on Holocaust remembrance. It was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Jewish Book Award, and the Prix Médicis in France. It was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper History Prize in the UK and placed second for the 2006 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award for Nonfiction. An international bestseller, The Lost has been translated into numerous languages, including French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, German, Romanian, Turkish, Norwegian, and Hebrew.

Mary McGarry Morris is an American novelist, short story author and playwright from New England. She uses its towns as settings for her works. In 1991, Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times described Morris as "one of the most skillful new writers at work in America today"; The Washington Post has described her as a "superb storyteller"; and The Miami Herald has called her "one of our finest American writers".

<i>One Bullet Away</i> Autobiography by Nathaniel Fick

One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer is an autobiography by Nathaniel Fick, published by Houghton-Mifflin in 2005. An account of Nathaniel Fick's time in the United States Marine Corps, it begins with his experiences at Officer Candidate's School in Quantico, Virginia and details his deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq during the War on Terror.

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

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. She is an editor of the Brooklyn-based literary magazine A Public Space.

The PEN/Malamud Award and Memorial Reading honors "excellence in the art of the short story", and is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. The selection committee is composed of PEN/Faulkner directors and representatives of Bernard Malamud's literary executors. The award was first given in 1988.

<i>The Death of Vishnu</i> 2001 novel by Indian-American writer Manil Suri

The Death of Vishnu (2001) is a novel by Indian-American writer Manil Suri. The book is about the spiritual journey of a dying man named Vishnu living on a landing of a Bombay apartment building, as well as the lives of the residents living in the building.

The Macavity Awards, established in 1987, are a literary award for mystery writers. Nominated and voted upon annually by the members of the Mystery Readers International, the award is named for the "mystery cat" of T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. The award is given in four categories—best novel, best first novel, best nonfiction, and best short story. The Sue Feder Historical Mystery has been given in conjunction with the Macavity Awards.

<i>Beautiful Boy: A Fathers Journey Through His Sons Addiction</i> 2008 memoir by David Sheff

Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction is a memoir by David Sheff that describes how his family dealt with his son Nic's methamphetamine addiction. It was published by Houghton Mifflin on February 26, 2008. The book grew out of the article "My Addicted Son" that Sheff had written for The New York Times Magazine in 2005. Son Nic Sheff's perspective was told in his own memoir Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines, published concurrently by an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

The National Book Award for Fiction is one of five annual National Book Awards, which recognize outstanding literary work by United States citizens. Since 1987, the awards have been administered and presented by the National Book Foundation, but they are awards "by writers to writers." The panelists are five "writers who are known to be doing great work in their genre or field."

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 Stella Prize is an Australian annual literary award established in 2013 for writing by Australian women in all genres, worth $50,000. It was originally proposed by Australian women writers and publishers in 2011, modelled on the UK's Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.

Morgan Talty is a Penobscot writer and an assistant professor of English in Creative Writing and Native American and Contemporary Literature at the University of Maine in Orono.

<i>The Rabbit Hutch</i> 2022 novel by Tess Gunty

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.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Barnes & Noble Names Winners of the 27th Annual Discover Awards". Authorlink. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  2. "J. Robert Lennon Wins 1997 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award". Writers Write. January 21, 1998. Archived from the original on April 23, 2024. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  3. "Book Brahmins: Manil Suri". Shelf Awareness . February 29, 2008. Archived from the original on October 2, 2017. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Barnes & Noble Announces Finalists for Discover Awards". Poets & Writers . February 3, 2004. Archived from the original on April 23, 2024. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "2005 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Awards Announced". Independent Publisher. Archived from the original on October 26, 2021. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "B&N Finds Great New Writers". Shelf Awareness . March 2, 2006. Archived from the original on December 6, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Awards: B&N's Discoveries; Books for a Better Life". Shelf Awareness . March 1, 2007. Archived from the original on August 20, 2016. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Kate Braestrup and Joshua Ferris Win Barnes & Noble Discover Prize". Publishers Weekly . February 28, 2008. Archived from the original on April 23, 2024. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  9. 1 2 "Jean Valentine, Junot Díaz Among Finalists for Los Angeles Times Book Prizes". Poets & Writers . March 5, 2008. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Awards 2008". Bookreporter.com. Archived from the original on August 26, 2017. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Awards: B&N Discover Great New Writers; Florida Book Awards". Shelf Awareness . March 5, 2009. Archived from the original on September 23, 2021. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Awards 2009". Bookreporter.com. Archived from the original on April 23, 2024. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Awards: Story Prize, Arabic Fiction, Great New Writers". Shelf Awareness . March 4, 2010. Archived from the original on February 23, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Awards 2010". Bookreporter.com. Archived from the original on December 10, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Awards: B&N Discover; Indies Choice; PEN/Faulkner Fiction". Shelf Awareness . March 3, 2011. Archived from the original on March 7, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Awards 2011". Bookreporter.com. Archived from the original on April 23, 2024. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Habash, Gabe (March 7, 2012). "Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Awards 'Untouchable' and 'Kosher Chinese'". Publishers Weekly . Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Habash, Gabe (March 6, 2013). "B&N Discover Awards Go to Cheryl Strayed and Amanda Coplin". Publishers Weekly . Archived from the original on June 28, 2022. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Awards: B&N Discover; PEN/Faulkner Fiction; Lambda". Shelf Awareness . March 7, 2013. Archived from the original on March 7, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Awards: PEN/Faulkner Fiction; B&N New Writers; N.E. Societ". Shelf Awareness . March 5, 2014. Archived from the original on November 20, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Swanson, Clare (March 4, 2015). "Wyld, Andrews Take Home 2014 B&N Discover Awards". Publishers Weekly . Archived from the original on December 21, 2015. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Awards: Golden Kite; B&N Discover; L.A. Times; Scottish Kids". Shelf Awareness . March 5, 2015. Archived from the original on October 27, 2022. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Koonse, Emma (March 3, 2016). "Leovy, Alvar Win 2015 B&N Discover Awards". Publishers Weekly . Archived from the original on March 25, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  24. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Awards: Scottish Children's Book; B&N Discover". Shelf Awareness . March 3, 2016. Archived from the original on February 24, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  25. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Awards 2016". Bookreporter.com. Archived from the original on June 16, 2017. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  26. "WNE New Writers Reading Series to Feature Author Jung Yun". Western New England University . October 18, 2023. Archived from the original on October 18, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  27. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Awards: Windham-Campbell, B&N Discover Winners; Stella Shortlist". Shelf Awareness . March 8, 2018. Archived from the original on October 27, 2022. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  28. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Barnes & Noble Announces the Winners of the 28th Annual Discover Awards". Barnes & Noble . March 6, 2019. Archived from the original on November 30, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  29. 1 2 "Barnes & Noble Discover Awards, Daughters of Africa Sequel, and More". Poets & Writers . March 11, 2019. Archived from the original on April 2, 2019. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  30. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "July/August 2019 - Recent Winners". Poets & Writers . Archived from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  31. 1 2 Reid, Calvin (January 31, 2020). "Adam, Young Win B&N 2019 Discover New Writers Awards". Publishers Weekly . Archived from the original on December 6, 2022. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  32. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Kai, Maiysha (February 3, 2020). "VSB's Damon Young Wins Barnes & Noble's Discover Great New Writers Award for What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker". The Root . Archived from the original on December 3, 2022. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  33. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 "Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, Awards, Books". Barnes & Noble . Archived from the original on March 1, 2024. Retrieved April 23, 2024.