Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction
Encyclopedia
The Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction is awarded by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The $5,000 prize is given for the best published first novel or collection of short stories in the preceding year. It was established in 1979 in memory of author Sue Kaufman
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Sue Kaufman
Sue Kaufman is an American author best known for the novel Diary of a Mad Housewife.- Biography :Kaufman was born in Long Island, New York. She received her degree from Vassar College in 1947. In 1953 she married a doctor named Jeremiah Abraham Barondess with whom she had a son. At Vasser she did...
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Past winners
- 1980 - Jayne Anne Phillips, Black Tickets
- 1981 - Tom Lorenz, Guys Like Us
- 1982 - Ted MooneyTed MooneyTed Mooney is an American novelist and short story writer; He has published four novels: Easy Travel to Other Planets , Traffic and Laughter , Singing into the Piano , and The Same River Twice,...
, Easy Travel to Other Planets - 1983 - Susanna MooreSusanna MooreSusanna Moore in Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania, is an American writer.Susanna Moore grew up in Hawaii. Her memoir, I Myself Have Seen It: The Myth of Hawai'i gives the reader deep insight into a life in Hawaii other than that presented by tourist brochures.In 1999 she received the Academy Award in...
, My Old Sweetheart - 1984 - Denis JohnsonDenis JohnsonDenis Hale Johnson is an American author who is known for his short-story collection Jesus' Son and his novel Tree of Smoke , which won the National Book Award. He also writes plays, poetry and non-fiction.- Biography :...
, Angels - 1985 - Louise ErdrichLouise ErdrichKaren Louise Erdrich, known as Louise Erdrich, is an author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American heritage. She is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant writers of the second wave of what critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance...
, Love MedicineLove MedicineLove Medicine is Louise Erdrich’s first novel, published in 1984. Erdrich revised and expanded the novel for an edition issued in 1993, and this version was considered the definitive edition until 2009 when Erdrich re-edited it... - 1986 - Cecile PinedaCecile PinedaCecile Pineda was born in September 1932 in the Harlem, New York city. Her novels have won numerous awards including the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and a Gold Medal from the Commonwealth Club of California in 1986 for Face, and a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship...
, Face - 1987 - Jeannette Haien, The All of It
- 1988 - Kaye GibbonsKaye GibbonsKaye Gibbons is an American novelist. Her 1987 debut, Ellen Foster, received the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a Special Citation from the Ernest Hemingway Foundation, and the The Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Prize in Creative Writing from...
, Ellen FosterEllen FosterEllen Foster is a 1987 novel by American novelist Kaye Gibbons. It was a selection of Oprah's Book Club in October 1997.-Plot introduction:The novel follows the story of Ellen, the first person narrator, a young white American girl living under unfavorable conditions somewhere in the rural... - 1989 - Gary KristGary Krist (writer)Gary Michael Krist is an American writer of fiction, nonfiction, travel journalism, and literary criticism. Before turning to narrative nonfiction with The White Cascade , a book about the 1910 Wellington avalanche, Krist wrote three novels--Bad Chemistry , Chaos Theory , and Extravagance...
, The Garden State - 1990 - Allan GurganusAllan GurganusAllan Gurganus is an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist whose work is often influenced by and set in his native North Carolina. His writing has been compared to the work of William Faulkner and Eudora Welty, who also were identified with the American South.-Biography: Gurganus was...
, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells AllOldest Living Confederate Widow Tells AllOldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All is a 1989 first novel by Allan Gurganus which was on the New York Times Best Seller list for eight months. It won the Sue Kaufman Prize from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, was a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, and sold over four... - 1991 - Charles PalliserCharles PalliserCharles Palliser is a best-selling novelist, American-born but British-based. His most well-known novel, "The Quincunx", has sold over a million copies internationally. He is the elder brother of the late author and freelance journalist Marcus Palliser.-Life and career:Born in New England he is...
, The QuincunxThe QuincunxThe Quincunx is the epic first novel of Charles Palliser. It takes the form of a Dickensian mystery set in early 19th century England, but Palliser has added the modern attributes of an ambiguous ending and unreliable narrators... - 1992 - Alex Ullmann, Afghanistan
- 1993 - Francisco GoldmanFrancisco GoldmanFrancisco Goldman is an American novelist, journalist, and Allen K. Smith Professor of Literature and Creative Writing, Trinity College. He is workshop director at , the journalism school for Latin-America created by Gabriel García Márquez...
, The Long Night of White Chickens - 1994 - Emile CapouyaEmile CapouyaEmile Capouya was an essayist, critic, and writer.- Life :Capouya studied at Columbia University in New York City and started his working life at New Directions in New York. From 1969–1981 he was publisher at The Nation and wrote for The New American Review, The New York Times and The...
, In the Sparrow Hills - 1995 - Jim GrimsleyJim Grimsley-Biography:Born to a troubled rural family in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Grimsley said of his childhood that "for us in the South, the family is a field where craziness grows like weeds"....
, Winter Birds - 1996 - Peter Landesman, The Raven
- 1997 - Brad WatsonBrad Watson (writer)-Life:He graduated from Mississippi State University in 1978, and the University of Alabama in 1985. He is a professor of creative writing and literature in the Department of English at the University of Wyoming.His work appeared in The New Yorker.-Awards:...
, Last Days of the Dog-Men - 1998 - Charles FrazierCharles FrazierCharles Frazier is an award-winning American historical novelist.Frazier was born in Asheville, North Carolina, and graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1973. He earned an M.A. from Appalachian State University in the mid-1970s, and received his Ph.D. in English from the University...
, Cold MountainCold Mountain (novel)Cold Mountain is a 1997 historical fiction novel by Charles Frazier. It tells the story of W. P. Inman, a wounded deserter from the Confederate army near the end of the American Civil War who walks for months to return to Ada Monroe, the love of his life; the story shares several similarities with... - 1999 - Michael ByersMichael ByersMichael Byers is an American writer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is a graduate of Oberlin College and of the University of Michigan Creative Writing MFA Program. His first book, The Coast of Good Intentions, is a collection of short stories set in his native Pacific Northwest...
, The Coast of Good Intentions - 2000 - Nathan EnglanderNathan EnglanderNathan Englander is a Jewish-American author born in Long Island, NY in 1970. He wrote the short story collection, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., in 1999...
, For the Relief of Unbearable UrgesFor the Relief of Unbearable UrgesFor the Relief of Unbearable Urges is a short story collection by Nathan Englander, first published by Knopf in 1999. It has received many positive reviews. It earned Englander a PEN/Malamud Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction. The collection contains nine stories, many of which... - 2001 - Akhil SharmaAkhil SharmaAkhil Sharma is an Indian-American author.Born in Delhi, India, he immigrated to the United States when he was eight, and grew up in Edison, New Jersey. Sharma studied at Princeton University, where he earned his B.A. in public policy at the Woodrow Wilson School...
, An Obedient Father - 2002 - Don LeeDon Lee (author)Don Lee is an American novelist who spent his childhood in Tokyo and Seoul as the son of a State Department officer. He received his B.A. in English Literature from University of California, Los Angeles and his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Emerson College. He has also served as the primary...
, YellowYellow (Don Lee)Yellow is a collection of short stories written by American novelist Don Lee. "Set in the fictional California town of Rosarita Bay, Don Lee's Yellow is a fresh, contemporary vision of what it means to be Asian in America, a post-immigrant examination of identity, race, and love... - 2003 - Gabe HudsonGabe HudsonGabe Hudson is an American writer who currently lives in Seoul, Korea, where he is Chair of the Creative Writing Program at Yonsei University’s Underwood International College. Before moving to Seoul, he taught in the Creative Writing Program at Princeton University from 2004-2007.-Life:Hudson...
, Dear Mr. President - 2004 - Nell FreudenbergerNell Freudenberger-Life:Freudenberger graduated from Harvard and has traveled extensively in Asia.Her travel writing has been published in Travel + Leisure, Salon, The New Yorker, and The Telegraph Magazine. ...
, Lucky Girls - 2005 - John Dalton, Heaven Lake
- 2006 - Uzodinma IwealaUzodinma IwealaDr. Uzodinma Iweala is an author and physician who hails from Washington, DC and Nigeria. His debut novel, Beasts of No Nation, is a formation of his thesis work at Harvard. It depicts a child soldier in an unnamed African country...
, Beasts of No NationBeasts of No NationBeasts of No Nation is a 2005 novel by Uzodinma Iweala.The novel follows the journey of a young boy, Agu, who is forced to join a group of soldiers in an unnamed West African country... - 2007 - Tony D'SouzaTony D'SouzaTony D'Souza is an American novelist, journalist, essayist, reviewer, travel and short story writer. He has published three novels with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and in foreign translations: Whiteman , The Konkans , and Mule...
, Whiteman - 2008 - Frances Hwang, Transparency: Stories
- 2009 - Charles BockCharles BockCharles Bock is an American writer whose debut 2008 novel Beautiful Children was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year for 2008, and won the 2009 Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters...
, Beautiful Children - 2010 - Josh Weil, The New Valley
- 2011 - Brando SkyhorseBrando SkyhorseBrando Skyhorse is an American author and winner of the 2011 PEN/Hemingway Award, for his novel The Madonnas of Echo Park. He was a professional book editor prior to publishing this book, which was originally named Amexicans...
, The Madonnas of Echo Park