2020 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Longlist

The 2020 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize longlist has been announced. The 27 titles were selected from 119 submissions with U.S. publication dates between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020. The shortlisted titles will be announced this fall.

The First Novel Prize, first awarded in 2006, was created to honor the best debut fiction of the year. The winner will receive a $15,000 prize, with each shortlisted author receiving $1,000. The winner will be announced in December at the Center for Fiction's annual benefit and awards dinner.

The longlisted books are:

• The All-Night Sun by Diane Zinna (Random House)
• Antkind by Charlie Kaufman (Random House)
• August by Callan Wink (Random House)
• The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafah (W. W. Norton & Company)
• Bestiary by K-Ming Chang (One World)
• Conjure Women by Afia Atakora (Random House)
• Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford (Grove Press)
• Godshot by Chelsea Bieker (Catapult)
• The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi (MIRA Books)
• How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang (Riverhead Books)
• The Illness Lesson by Clare Beams (Doubleday)
• Indelicacy by Amina Cain (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Kept Animals by Kate Milliken (Scribner)
• Luster by Raven Leilani (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Memorial by Bryan Washington (Riverhead Books)
• My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell (William Morrow)
• Real Life by Brandon Taylor (Riverhead Books)
• The Redshirt by Corey Sobel (University Press of Kentucky)
• Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn (MCD)
• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (Grove Press)
• Temporary by Hilary Leichter (Coffee House Press)
• These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card (Simon & Schuster)
• Things You Would Know If You Grew Up Around Here by Nancy Wayson Dinan (Bloomsbury)
• True Story by Kate Reed Petty (Viking)
• Under the Rainbow by Celia Laskey (Riverhead Books)
• Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore (Harper)
• White Ivy by Susie Yang (Simon & Schuster)