The National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Prize honors five debut fiction writers whose work promises to leave a lasting impression on the literary landscape.
In 2006, the National Book Foundation established the 5 Under 35 prize to recognize outstanding debut fiction writers under the age of 35. 5 Under 35 has identified some of the most celebrated young writers working today. Amazon Literary Partnership supports the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 program.
The Honorees for the 2024 National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Prize are:
She is the author of the novel Sirens & Muses, which was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award and was named a Best Book of the Year by Glamour. Antonia is a 2024 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow and a 2024 Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grantee. Also, she holds a BA in Comparative Literature from Brown University and an MFA in Fiction from the University of Minnesota. Born in Los Angeles and raised in Costa Rica, she lives in Minneapolis.
2. Maya Binyam
She is a writer whose work has appeared in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, New York, Bookforum, Columbia Journalism Review, and the New York Times Book Review, among others. Maya is a contributing editor at The Paris Review and has previously worked as an editor at Triple Canopy and The New Inquiry, and as a lecturer in The New School’s Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism program.
3. Zain Khalid
He is an American writer and novelist from New York. His debut novel, Brother Alive, won the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award and the Community of Literary Magazines and other awards. Le Guin Prize for Fiction. Khalid is also the recipient of the 2024 Bard Fiction Prize. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, n+1, The Believer, Astra Magazine, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, and elsewhere. He is a contributing editor at The Drift.
4. Tyriek White
He is a writer, musician, and educator from Brooklyn, NY. He is the author of the novel, We Are a Haunting, which won the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and was longlisted for the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize. Also he has received fellowships from Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, New York State Writer’s Institute, and Key West Literary Seminar, among other honors. Tyriek is currently the media director of Lampblack Literary Foundation, which seeks to provide mutual aid and various resources to Black writers across the diaspora. Additionally, he holds a degree in Creative Writing & Africana Studies from Pitzer College and most recently earned an MFA from the University of Mississippi.
5. Jenny Tinghui Zhang
She is a Chinese-American writer and author of the novel Four Treasures of the Sky. Her work has appeared in The Cut, the New York Times, Texas Highways, and The Rumpus, among others. She is a Kundiman fellow and graduate of Voices of Our Nation Arts (VONA) Foundation and Tin House workshops. Also, she holds an MFA from the University of Wyoming.
Previous honorees include:
- Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah,
- Brit Bennett,
- Akwaeke Emezi,
- Angela Flournoy,
- Phil Klay,
- Valeria Luiselli,
- C.E. Morgan,
- Téa Obreht,
- ZZ Packer,
- Karen Russell,
- Justin Torres,
- Bryan Washington,
- Claire Vaye Watkins,
- Tiphanie Yanique,
- and Charles Yu.
5 Under 35 honorees are selected by authors who have been recognized by either the National Book Awards or 5 Under 35 itself. To be eligible for the prize, writers must have published their first and only book of fiction—either a story collection or a novel—within the last five years. Honorees are chosen at the discretion of the selectors. As such, publishers cannot nominate an honoree or submit a book for consideration.
The honorees are recognized at a public ceremony in New York and presented with a $1,000 prize.