Christy Lefteri's novel of the Syrian refugee crisis won the third annual award, which doles out $35,000 for fiction that illuminates a pressing social issue.
The annual award, doled out in partnership with NPR, honors fiction that doesn't shy from grappling with thorny social issues. Just one of the five books remaining will win $35,000 come April.
The novelist and poet joined Sarah M. Broom, László Krasznahorkai, Ottilie Mulzet, and Martin W. Sandler as winners Wednesday night — receiving $10,000 and a medallion for their front covers.
The literary prize, which honors fiction that tackles tough social issues, has announced a longlist of 16 titles. The nominees for the $35,000 prize include some big names and plenty of debuts.
The shortlists this year include Marlon James, Susan Choi, Carolyn Forché, Jason Reynolds and more than two dozen other authors and translators. Winners in five categories will be unveiled next month.
Colson Whitehead and Marlon James headline the longlists of names in contention for the literary prize. Altogether, 50 books across five categories stand a chance at winning in November.
Atwood made the list for her sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, and Rushdie for his reimagining of Don Quixote. Chigozie Obioma, Elif Shafak, Lucy Ellmann and Bernardine Evaristo round out the finalists.
An American Marriage won the nearly $40,000 award, once known as the Orange Prize, at a ceremony Tuesday in London. "We all loved this brilliant book," the judges said.
Judges sought to support the media "even if some wrongly degrade [it] as the enemy of the very democracy it serves." Honors went to The Advocate in Baton Rouge, La., Florida's Sun-Sentinel and others.
The novel earned Jones the $35,000 award for tackling difficult social issues in fiction. The prize's head judge says the book is "going to have a place in the literary imagination for a long time."
The novelists, poets and playwrights won Wednesday partly for their work so far, but also for the promise they've shown. If previous winners are an indication, it's a promise they're likely to keep.
Five books remain in the running: Tommy Orange's There There; Tayari Jones' An American Marriage; David Chariandy's Brother; Jennifer Clement's Gun Love; and Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah.
Behrouz Boochani, who has been detained offshore since 2013, had to compose his debut using WhatsApp messages. Now, that book has earned him the Victorian Prize for Literature
The world of children's books gave out its most prestigious prizes Monday at the American Library Association's conference in Seattle. Works by Meg Medina and Sophie Blackall won the headline honors.
Nunez and Acevedo won for fiction and young people's literature, respectively. The prestigious literary prize also honored Jeffrey C. Stewart, Justin Phillip Reed, Yoko Tawada and Margaret Mitsutani.
Ling Ma's debut, Severance, won for fiction. Crown earned Derrick Barnes and Gordon James the young readers' prize. And Rebecca Solnit's essays, Call Them by Their True Names, won nonfiction laurels.
