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