Aspen Words Literary Prize

Washington’s novel Memorial tackles big issues like race with humor and real people and an electric energy.

Her book Against the Loveless World follows Nahr, a Palestinian refugee who tells her story from a solitary-confinement cell in Israel.

Her book The Vanishing Half combines a tale of love, abandonment, and betrayal with deep social insights about race and identity.

Their latest novel The Death of Vivek Oji is a dramatic story of loss and transcendence that will move every reader. 

Taylor is the author of Real Life, a novel that follows a group of friends as they argue, manipulate, and fall in and out of love.

With her timely new book, Evans brings her signature voice to the subjects of race, grief, apology, and American history.

Check out the longlist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize, an annual award for fiction that addresses a vital contemporary issue.

The book tells the story of a couple who flees war-torn Syria to make a treacherous journey to the UK.

Following is a series of virtual conversations between the judges and each of the finalist authors in the running for the prize.

The prize is a $35,000 annual award for a work of fiction that illuminates vital contemporary issues.