Announcing the 2019 Young Lions Fiction Award Finalists

By NYPL Staff
April 11, 2019
Young Lions Fiction Award

We are pleased to announce the finalists for the nineteenth annual Young Lions Fiction Award, honoring the works of five talented young authors. 

 

The finalists for the 2019 Young Lions Fiction Award are: 

Friday Black

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
A  debut story collection from a young writer with an explosive voice; a treacherously surreal, and, at times, heartbreakingly satirical look at what it’s like to be young and Black in America.

Sabrina

Sabrina by Nick Drnaso
When a woman disappears, those connected to her find the intimacy of their relationships stripped away in a world devoid of personal interactions and responsibility.

Freshwater

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
Traces the experiences of a deeply troubled young woman who alarms her devout Nigerian family as she succumbs to multiple personality disorder and begins to display increasingly dark and dangerous traits in accordance with her fractured personalities.

Severance

Severance by Ling Ma
A survivor of an apocalyptic plague maintains a blog about a decimated Manhattan before joining a motley group of survivors to search for a place to rebuild, a goal that is complicated by an unscrupulous group leader.

The Third Hotel

The Third Hotel by Laura van den Berg
Attending a film festival with tickets purchased by her recently deceased husband, a grieving widow is shocked to discover her husband alive and must navigate an increasingly blurred line between reality and fantasy to uncover the truth.

Which book do you think should win? Join the conversation on social media using #NYPLYoungLions!

The winning writer will be awarded on June 13, 2019, at 8 PM during a ceremony held in the Celeste Bartos Forum of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Young Lions members are invited to attend the reception and ceremony. Learn more here.

About the Young Lions Fiction Award

Founded in 2001  by Ethan Hawke, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, Rick Moody, and Hannah McFarland, the Young Lions Fiction Award is given annually to an American writer age 35 or younger for either a novel or a collection of short stories. Each year, five young fiction writers are selected as finalists by a reading committee of writers, editors, and librarians. A panel of award judges—which this year includes 2018 winner Lesley Nneka Arimah— will select the winner of this year's $10,000 prize

Past winners of the Young Lions Fiction Award include:  Lesley Nneka Arimah, What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky; Karan Mahajan, The Association of Small Bombs; Amelia Gray, Gutshot; Molly Antopol, The UnAmericans; Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated; Colson Whitehead, John Henry Days; and Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves.

The Award is made possible by an endowment created with generous gifts from Russell Abrams, Nina Collins, Hannah and Gavin McFarland, Ethan Hawke, Stephan Loewentheil, Rick Moody, Andrea Olshan, and Jennifer Rudolph Walsh. 

About the Young Lions

The Young Lions is a special membership group for people in their 20s and 30s who love literature, a good cocktail, and the Library. Young Lions members receive exclusive access to engaging and inspiring events, behind-the-scenes tours of the NYPL, pre-release film screenings, intimate discussions with celebrated writers, the annual Young Lions Fiction Award, and more. Membership provides critical support to the Library's Book Fund, which ensures all New Yorkers have access to books, e-books, and other essential resources, completely free of charge.

Learn more about the Young Lions or buy a ticket to an upcoming event: