Young Lions Award List of Winners and Finalists
2023 Winner: Zain Khalid, Brother Alive
Fatimah Asghar, When We Were Sisters
Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation
Reyes Ramirez, The Book Of Wanderers
David Sanchez, All Day Is A Long Time
Judges: Jessamine Chan, Claire Luchette, Kalani Pickhart
2022 Winner: Kalani Pickhart, I Will Die in a Foreign Land
Mateo Askaripour, Black Buck
Alexandra Kleeman, Something New Under the Sun
Tom Lin, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu
Dantiel W. Moniz, Milk Blood Heat
Judges: Venita Blackburn, Jonas Hassen Khemiri, Catherine Lacey
2021 Winner: Catherine Lacey, Pew
Meng Jin, Little Gods
Hilary Leichter, Temporary
Brandon Taylor, Real Life
C Pam Zhang, How Much of These Hills Is Gold
Judges: Hernan Diaz, Yahdon Israel, Emma Straub
2020 Winner: Bryan Washington, Lot
Steph Cha, Your House Will Pay
Julia Phillips, Disappearing Earth
Kiley Reid, Such a Fun Age
Xuan Juliana Wang, Home Remedies
Judges: Ethan Hawke, Mitchell Jackson, Ling Ma
2019 Winner: Ling Ma, Severance
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Friday Black
Nick Drnaso, Sabrina
Akwaeke Emezi, Freshwater
Laura van den Berg, The Third Hotel
Judges: Lesley Nneka Arimah, Tayari Jones, Marisa Silvers
2018 Winner: Lesley Nneka Arimah, What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky
Venita Blackburn, Black Jesus and Other Superheroes
Gabe Habash, Stephen Florida
Emily Ruskovich, Idaho
Jenny Zhang, Sour Heart
Judges: Carys Davies, Lynn Lobash, Karan Mahajan
2017 Winner: Karan Mahajan, The Association of Small Bombs
Clare Beams, We Show What We Have Learned
Brit Bennett, The Mothers
Nicole Dennis-Benn, Here Comes the Sun
Kaitlyn Greenidge, We Love You Charlie Freeman
Judges: Amelia Gray, Susan Minot, Salvatore Scibona
2016 Winner: Amelia Gray, Gutshot
Angela Flournoy, The Turner House
Alexandra Kleeman, You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine
Helen Phillips, The Beautiful Bureaucrat
Kirstin Valdez Quade, Night at the Fiestas
Judges: Molly Antopol, Joseph O'Neill, Alejandro Zambra
2015 Winner: Molly Antopol, The UnAmericans
Jesse Ball, Silence Once Begun
Catherine Lacey, Nobody is Ever Missing
Andrew Ladd, What Ends
Ben Lerner, 10:04
Judges: Ayana Mathis, Rebecca Mead, Paul Yoon
2014 Winner: Paul Yoon, Snow Hunters
Matt Bell, In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods
Jennifer duBois, Cartwheel
Anthony Marra, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
Chinelo Okparanta, Happiness, Like Water
Judges: Téa Obreht, Colm Tóibín, Claire Vaye Watkins
2013 Winner: Claire Vaye Watkins, Battleborn
Ramona Ausubel, No One Is Here Except All of Us
Joshua Cohen, Four New Messages
Katie Kitamura, Gone to the Forest
Kevin Powers, The Yellow Birds
Judges: Karen Russell, John Wray, Peter Nathaniel Malae
2012 Winner: Karen Russell, Swamplandia!
Teju Cole, Open City
Benjamin Hale, The Evolution of Bruno
Ben Lerner, Leaving the Atocha Station
Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones
Judges: Álvaro Enrique, A.M. Homes, Adam Levin
2011 Winner: Adam Levin, The Instructions
John Brandon, Citrus County
Patricia Engel, Vida
Suzanne Rivecca, Death Is Not an Option
Teddy Wayne, Kapitoil
Judges: Maile Chapman, Andrew Sean Greer, Kelly Link
2010 Winner: Wells Tower, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
Jedediah Berry, The Manual of Detection
Katie Kitamura, The Longshot
C.E. Morgan, All the Living
Philipp Meyer, American Rust
Judges: Amy Hempel, Rick Moody, Salvatore Scibona
2009 Winner: Salvatore Scibona, The End
Jon Fasman, The Unpossessed City
Rivka Galchen, Atmospheric Disturbances
Sana Krasikov, One More Year
Zachary Mason, The Lost Books of the Odyssey
Judges: André Aciman, Lore Segal, Ron Currie, Jr.
2008 Winner: Ron Currie, Jr., God Is Dead
Ellen Litman, The Last Chicken In America
Peter Nathaniel Malae, Teach the Free Man
Dinaw Mengestu, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
Emily Mitchell, The Last Summer of the World
Judges: Olga Grushin, Han Ong, Helen Schulman
2007 Winner: Olga Grushin, The Dream Life of Sukhanov
Chris Adrian, The Children’s Hospital
Kevin Brockmeier, The Brief History of the Dead
Tony D’Souza, Whiteman
Karen Russell, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
Judges: Kathryn Harrison, Jeff Talarigo, Uzodinma Iweala
2006 Winner: Uzodinma Iweala, Beasts of No Nation
Rattawut Lapcharoensap, Sightseeing
Kelly Link, Magic for Beginners
Ander Monson, Other Electricities
Eric Puchner, Music Through the Floor
Judges: Rick Moody, Edmund White, Andrew Sean Greer
2005 Winner: Andrew Sean Greer, The Confessions of Max Tivoli
Marc Bojanowski, The Dog Fighter
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Madeleine is Sleeping
Stephen Elliott, Happy Baby
Aaron Gwyn, Dog on the Cross
Judges: Siri Hustvedt, Colum McCann, Monique Truong
2004 Winner: Monique Truong, The Book of Salt
Jordan Ellenberg, The Grasshopper King
Susan Choi, American Woman
Lara Vapnyar, There Are Jews in My House
Maile Meloy, Liars and Saints
Judges: Anthony Doerr, Jonathan Safran Foer, Maureen Howard
2003 Winners: Anthony Doerr, The Shell Collector; Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated
Adam Johnson, Emporium
Ben Marcus, Notable American Women
Peter Rock, The Ambidextrist
Judges: Joyce Carol Oates, Caryl Phillips, Colson Whitehead
2002 Winner: Colson Whitehead, John Henry Days
David Czuchlewski, The Muse Asylum
Allegra Goodman, Paradise Park
Peter Orner, Esther Stories
Brady Udall, The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint
Judges: Andrea Barrett, Mark Danielweski, Jonathan Lethem
2001 Winner: Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves
David Ebershoff , The Danish Girl
Myla Goldberg, Bee Season
Heidi Julavits, The Mineral Palace
Akhil Sharma, An Obedient Father
Darin Strauss, Chang and Eng
Judges: Michael Chabon, A.M. Homes, Francine Prose