Zain Khalid Wins The New York Public Library’s Twenty-Third Young Lions Fiction Award

Author headshots and book cover images are available here

June 15, 2023 —The New York Public Library has announced that Zain Khalid is the recipient of the Twenty-Third Young Lions Fiction Award for his book Brother Alive. The announcement was shared during an award ceremony held this evening in the Celeste Bartos Forum at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, presented in part by Stoli and underwritten in part by Apartment 3C Productions. 

This year’s judges were Jessamine Chan, Claire Luchette, and last year’s winner, Kalani Pickhart. For more details about the Young Lions Fiction Award and the Young Lions visit nypl.org/yl. The finalists’ books are available for purchase online at https://shop.nypl.org/collections/young-lions-fiction-bookshelf. 

"Brother Alive is a stunning achievement—conceptually daring, endlessly surprising, and rich with moral and intellectual questions that match the beauty of Zain Khalid’s prose and the fullness of his imagination. I can’t wait to see what he does next," said Young Lions Fiction Award judge and New York Times bestselling author, Jessamine Chan.  

Brother Alive is the debut novel from Khalid, whose writing has appeared in The New Yorker, n+1, The Believer, Astra Magazine, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, and elsewhere. A stylistically brilliant and intellectually acute story about family, sexuality, and capitalist systems of control, following three adopted brothers—Dayo, Iseul, and Youssef—who live above a mosque in Staten Island with their imam father. Youssef shares everything with his brothers, except for one secret: he sees a shapeshifting, hallucinatory double called Brother, an imaginary friend who seems absolutely real. Their father, Imam Salim, keeps to himself at home, and like Youssef, he also has secrets. When Imam Salim’s path takes him back to Saudi Arabia, the boys, now adults, will be forced to follow, with devastating choices and consequences to follow.

The finalists for this year’s Young Lions Fiction Award were: 

• Fatimah Asghar for When We Were Sisters;
• Elaine Hsieh Chou for Disorientation; 
• Zain Khalid for Brother Alive;
• Reyes Ramirez for The Book of Wanderers;
• David Sanchez for All Day is a Long Time. 

Established in 2001, The New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award is a $10,000 prize awarded each year to a writer age 35 or younger for a novel or a collection of short stories. Each year, five young fiction writers are selected as finalists by a readers committee of Young Lions members, writers, editors, and librarians. A panel of judges selects the winner.

Past winners of the Young Lions Fiction Award include last year’s winner Kalani Pickhart, I Will Die in a Foreign Land; Catherine Lacey, Pew; Bryan Washington, Lot; Ling Ma, Severance. Past nominees have included: Alexanda Kleeman, Something New Under the Sun; Brandon Taylor, Real Life; Kiley Reid, Such a Fun Age; Brit Bennett, The Mothers; Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones; C Pam Zhang, How Much of These Hills is Gold; and Julia Phillips, Disappearing Earth.

Founded by Ethan Hawke, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, Rick Moody, and Hannah McFarland—and 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—this annual award recognizes the work of young authors and celebrates their accomplishments publicly, making a difference in their lives as they continue to build their careers.

The Award is part of the Library's Young Lions program, a membership group for people in their 20s and 30s who are committed to supporting the organization and to celebrating young writers and artists who are making an impact on this city's cultural life.

Zain Khalid Bio

Zain Khalid’s writing has appeared in The New Yorker, n+1, The Believer, Astra Magazine, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, and elsewhere. His debut novel, Brother Alive (Grove Atlantic), is a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize for best first book in any genre and was named a best book of 2022 by Library Journal and other outlets. He is also the fiction editor at The Drift.

About the Young Lions

The Young Lions is a membership group for New Yorkers in their 20s and 30s who are committed to supporting the work of the Library. Each season, members enjoy exclusive events that feature writers and leaders in the arts, politics, business, law, and the media. Through presenting dynamic events and contributing to the General Book Fund, the Young Lions are integral to the life of the Library and its future. Information about the Young Lions group is available online at www.nypl.org/joinyl.

About The New York Public Library

For over 125 years, The New York Public Library has been a free provider of education and information for the people of New York and beyond. With over 90 locations—including research and branch libraries—throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, the Library offers free materials, computer access, classes, exhibitions, programming and more to everyone from toddlers to scholars. The New York Public Library receives approximately 16 million visits through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at www.nypl.org. To offer this wide array of free programming, The New York Public Library relies on both public and private funding. Learn more about how to support the Library at nypl.org/give