2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize Longlist

Aspen Words, a program of the Aspen Institute, has announced the longlist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize, a $35,000 annual award for a work of fiction that "illuminates a vital contemporary issue." The 15 longlisted titles include 13 novels, five of them debuts, and two short story collections; some small presses, including Tin House, Catapult, and Feminist Press had books they published the longlist for the first time this year. The longlist is as follows:

• Black Sunday by Tola Rotimi Abraham (Catapult)
• Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa (Atria Books)
• Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam (Harper Collins/Ecco)
• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (Riverhead Books)
• The New Wilderness by Diane Cook (Harper Collins)
• Fiebre Tropical by Juliana Delgado Lopera (Feminist Press)
• The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi (Riverhead Books)
• The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich (Harper Collins)
• The Office of Historical Corrections: A Novella and Stories by Danielle Evans (Riverhead Books)
• Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi (Alfred A. Knopf)
• If I Had Two Wings: Stories by Randall Kenan (W.W. Norton & Company)
• A Children’s Bible: A Novel by Lydia Millet (W.W. Norton & Company)
• A Girl is a Body of Water by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (Tin House)
• Real Life by Brandon Taylor (Riverhead Books)
• Memorial by Bryan Washington (Riverhead Books)