Wally Lamb's THE RIVER IS WAITING an Oprah's Book Club selection

Congratulations to Wally Lamb, whose latest novel, THE RIVER IS WAITING, has been selected as part of Oprah’s Book Club!

The news was announced on June 10th on CBS Mornings, followed by an interview with Wally Lamb, Oprah, and the CBS Mornings anchors. See it here, and watch an extended conversation between Oprah and the author for The Oprah Podcast here.

The selection of THE RIVER IS WAITING marks Wally Lamb’s record-breaking third appearance on the Oprah’s Book Club list. (His novel SHE’S COME UNDONE was the book club’s very first selection, in 1997.)

See the official announcement page here, and discover THE RIVER IS WAITING, published by Marysue Rucci Books/Simon & Schuster, here.

Alexandra Fuller a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Memoir or Autobiography

Congratulations to Alexandra Fuller, whose FI: A MEMOIR OF MY SON was one of three finalists for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Memoir or Autobiography!

The Pulitzer committee deemed the memoir “[a]n elegiac meditation on motherhood and grief, written from the rage and pain of losing a child, but in a voice that ultimately resonates with beauty and hard-won acceptance.”

Find the full citation here, and discover FI, published by Grove Press, here.

Marie Howe wins the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Enormous congratulations to Marie Howe, who has won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, published by W.W. Norton!

The Pulitzer committee writes that the collection, “drawn from decades of work,” “mines the day-to-day modern experience for evidence of our shared loneliness, mortality, and holiness.”

Find the full citation page here, and discover Marie Howe’s NEW AND SELECTED POEMS here.

Aria Aber shortlisted for the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction

Aria Aber’s GOOD GIRL has been shortlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction!

The Women’s Prize is awarded annually to female writers in the English language and is known as “the greatest celebration of female creativity in the world.”

The winner from among the six nominees will be announced in London on June 12th.

See the shortlist here, and learn more about GOOD GIRL, published in the US by Hogarth, here.

Aria Aber longlisted for the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction

Aria Aber’s GOOD GIRL is longlisted for the UK’s 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction!

The Women’s Prize is awarded annually to female writers in the English language and is known as “the greatest celebration of female creativity in the world.”

Finalists will be announced April 2nd with a winner reported on June 12th in London.

See the full longlist here, and learn more about GOOD GIRL, published in the US by Hogarth, here.

Lauren Groff on the 2024 TIME 100

Congratulations to Lauren Groff for her inclusion in the 2024 TIME 100, TIME magazine’s annual list of the world’s most influential people!

Novelist and TIME 100 alumna Ann Patchett shared the following praise for Lauren in her citation for the issue:

“Her novels would have been enough. The Vaster Wilds, Matrix, Fates and Furies—flights of imagination and dives into history that keep readers turning pages late into the night. Her collection Florida (my personal favorite) won the Story Prize. But Lauren Groff is more than a great writer, she’s also a great citizen, channeling her belief that everyone should be free to read the books they choose into The Lynx, her new bookstore in Gainesville, Fla. When I heard the news, I wanted to stop her. I wanted to praise her. I wanted to tell her there will be days that being both a writer and a bookstore owner will feel like one job too many. Just ask Louise Erdrich, Emma Straub, Judy Blume, Jeff Kinney. Ask me. But the joy of putting the right book into a customer’s hands will make up for everything. Once again, Lauren Groff is doing spectacular work.”

View the full entry here and explore the complete 2024 TIME 100 list here.

And discover The Lynx, Gainesville, Florida’s brand-new Groff-owned bookshop, here!

Isabella Hammad wins the 2024 Aspen Words Literary Prize

Congratulations to Isabella Hammad, who has won the 2024 Aspen Words Literary Prize for her novel ENTER GHOST (Grove Press, 2023)! The Aspen Words Prize is annual award for an influential work of fiction that illuminates a vital contemporary issue and demonstrates the transformative power of literature on thought and culture.

The Aspen Words jury shared the following about ENTER GHOST:

“In elegant, nuanced prose, Isabella Hammad tells the story of Sonia Nasir, a stage actress living in London who returns to her homeland of Palestine to visit her sister, Haneen, after many years away and finds herself roped into a production of Hamlet in the West Bank. Exploring themes of diaspora, displacement, and the search for identity, Hammad constructs a world rich in texture and emotion. A poignant narrative of resilience and the quest for belonging, Enter Ghost is a dazzling story of self-discovery against the backdrop of displacement.”

Learn more about the Aspen Words Prize here.

And discover ENTER GHOST here.

Emma Cline a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow

Congratulations to Emma Cline, who has been named a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow in Fiction! The John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship provides support to culture creators working across 52 disciplines to “pursue independent work at the highest level under ‘the freest possible conditions.’”

View the full list of 2024 fellows here.