Young Lions Fiction Award

The Young Lions Fiction Award is an annual US literary prize of $10,000, awarded to a writer who is 35 years old or younger for a novel or collection of short stories. The award was established in 2001 by Ethan Hawke, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, Rick Moody, Hannah McFarland, and the New York Public Library. Each year, five young fiction writers are selected as finalists by a reading committee of Young Lions members (a New York Public Library membership aimed at people in their 20s and 30s), writers, editors, and librarians. A panel of judges selects the winner.

Recipients

Past winners and finalists

Year	Winner	Finalists	Judges
2001	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	Michael Chabon, A.M. Homes, Francine Prose
2002	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	Andrea Barrett, Mark Danielweski, Jonathan Lethem
2003	Anthony Doerr, The Shell Collector;  Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated	Adam Johnson, Emporium Ben Marcus, Notable American Women Peter Rock, The Ambidextrist	Joyce Carol Oates, Caryl Phillips, Colson Whitehead
2004	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	Anthony Doerr, Jonathan Safran Foer, Maureen Howard
2005	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	Siri Hustvedt, Colum McCann, Monique Truong
2006	Uzodinma Iweala, Beasts of No Nation	Rattawut Lapcharoensap, Sightseeing Kelly Link, Magic for Beginners Ander Monson, Other Electricities Eric Puchner, Music Through the Floor	Rick Moody, Edmund White, Andrew Sean Greer
2007	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	Kathryn Harrison, Jeff Talarigo, Uzodinma Iweala
2008	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	Olga Grushin, Han Ong, Helen Schulman
2009	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	André Aciman, Lore Segal, Ron Currie, Jr.
2010	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	Amy Hempel, Rick Moody, Salvatore Scibona
2011	Adam Levin, The Instructions	John Brandon, Citrus County Patricia Engel, Vida Suzanne Rivecca, Death Is Not an Option Teddy Wayne, Kapitoil	Maile Chapman, Andrew Sean Greer, Kelly Link
2012	Karen Russell, Swamplandia!	Teju Cole, Open City Benjamin Hale, The Evolution of Bruno Ben Lerner, Leaving the Atocha Station Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones	Álvaro Enrique, A.M. Homes, Adam Levin
2013	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	Karen Russell, John Wray, Peter Nathaniel Malae
2014	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	Téa Obreht, Colm Tóibín, Claire Vaye Watkins
2015	Molly Antopol, The UnAmericans	Jesse Ball, Silence Once Begun Catherine Lacey, Nobody is Ever Missing Andrew Ladd, What Ends Ben Lerner, 10:04	Ayana Mathis, Rebecca Mead, Paul Yoon
2016	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	Molly Antopol, Joseph O'Neill, Alejandro Zambra
2017	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	Amelia Gray, Susan Minot, Salvatore Scibon
2018	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	Carys Davies, Lynn Lobash, Karan Mahajan
2019	Ling Ma, Severance	Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Friday Black Nick Drnaso, Sabrina Akwaeke Emezi, Freshwater Laura van den Berg, The Third Hotel	Lesley Nneka Arimah, Tayari Jones, Marisa Silvers
2020	Bryan Washington, Lot	Steph Cha, Your House Will Pay Julia Phillips, Disappearing Earth Kiley Reid, Such a Fun Age Xuan Juliana Wang, Home Remedies	Ethan Hawke, Mitchell Jackson, Ling Ma
2021	Catherine Lacey, Pew	Meng Jin, Little Gods Hilary Leichter, Temporary Brandon Taylor, Real Life C Pam Zhang, How Much of These Hills Is Gold	Hernan Diaz, Emma Straub, Yahdon Israel
2022	Kalani Pickhart, I Will Die in a Foreign Land	Mateo Askaripour, Black Buck Alexandra Kleeman, Something Under the Sun Tom Lin, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu Dantiel W. Moniz, Milk Blood Heat	Venita Blackburn, Jonas Hassen Khemiri, and Catherine Lacey
2023	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	Jessamine Chan, Claire Luchette, and Kalani Pickhart