The prize is awarded annually to an influential work of fiction that highlights a vital contemporary issue and demonstrates the transformative power of literature on thought and culture.

In March, Aspen Words announced the 2023 finalists for the sixth annual Aspen Words Literary Prize, a $35,000 award recognizing a work of

In The Long Reckoning, George Black recounts the story of the small cast of characters—veterans, scientists, a private US foundation, and Quaker-inspired pacifists, and their Vietnamese partners—who used their moral authority, scientific and political ingenuity, and sheer persistence to attempt to heal the horrors left in the wake of the military engagement in Southeast Asia. Their intersecting story is one of reconciliation, embedded in a vivid portrait of Vietnam today, with all its startling collisions between past and present, in which one-time mortal enemies have been transformed into close allies and partners. Click here to read the reviews of The Long Reckoning.

In March, Aspen Words announced the 2023 finalists for the sixth annual Aspen Words Literary Prize, a $35,000 award recognizing a work of

In March, Aspen Words announced the 2023 finalists for the sixth annual Aspen Words Literary Prize, a $35,000 award recognizing a work of

In March, Aspen Words announced the 2023 finalists for the sixth annual Aspen Words Literary Prize, a $35,000 award recognizing a work of

Her short story collection What We Fed to the Manticore is narrated from animal perspectives.

Her novel "When We Were Sisters" traces the bond of three siblings who are left to raise one another after their parents die.

The 14 titles include seven fiction debuts and five short story collections.