Year-End Lists

The Center for Fiction: 2026 First Novel Prize

Winner

• TBA December 8

Shortlist

• A Real Animal
  Emeline Atwood
• Carrying
  Samantha Josephs
• Whidbey
  T Kira Madden
• Ruins, Child
  Giada Scodellaro
• Offseason
  Avigayl Sharp
• Blow Yourself Up
  Ankur Thakkar
• The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford
  Nafissa Thompson-Spires

Longlist

• Fallow
  Sarah Anderson
• Hope House
  Joe Bond
• Upward Bound
  Woody Brown
• Lost Lambs
  Madeline Cash
• Retro
  Jessica M. Goldstein
• To Stay, To Stay, To Stay
  Devon Halliday
• Honey in the Wound
  Jiyoung Han
• 200 Monas
  Jan Saenz
• On Sundays She Picked Flowers
  Yah Yah Scholfield
• Should the Waters Take Us
  Stephanie Soileau
• Rabbit, Fox, Tar
  P.C. Verrone
• Kitten
  Stacey Yu