2022 Winners
FICTION WINNER
Tom Lin
The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu
(Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group)
In Utah, in 1869, Ming Tsu reckons he has killed some 200 men and is now on his way to killing the five who had beaten him half to death, stolen his wife, and had him sentenced to 10 years of forced labor building the Central Pacific Railroad. Two years later, Ming has escaped and is ready for retribution. Infused with magic realism, Lin’s beautifully imagined first novel is a transcendent epic.
NONFICTION WINNER
Hanif Abdurraqib
A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance
(Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC)
Blending pop-culture essays, memoir, and poetry, Abdurraqib delves into the many iterations of Black artistic expression through an often deeply personal lens. Divided into five “movements,” these pieces offer an expansive exploration of subjects ranging from the often-tragic lives of legendary Black artists to close examination of a singular performance.
SHORTLIST
FICTION FINALISTS
The Five Wounds
Kirstin Valdez Quade
(W. W. Norton & Company)
Amadeo Padilla filled the role of Jesus during the re-creation of the Crucifixion as part of Holy Week, and he also has heavy burdens to bear in his real life in Las Penas, New Mexico, with his pregnant teen daughter, Angel and an ailing matriarch. Quade delivers a nuanced and authentic tale of characters who understand the inevitability of fate but try to forge ahead anyway in the hope of breaking free.
Matrix
Lauren Groff
(Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC)
In the twelfth century, Marie, former child crusader and “bastardess heir to the crown” of France and England, at age 17, considered unmarriageable due to her great height and plainness, arrives at the dismal abbey that she will eventually transform as abbess over the course of Groff’s splendidly daring, descriptive and spine-tingling novel of faith, power and temptation.
The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu
Tom Lin
(Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group)
In Utah, in 1869, Ming Tsu reckons he has killed some 200 men and is now on his way to killing the five who had beaten him half to death, stolen his wife, and had him sentenced to 10 years of forced labor building the Central Pacific Railroad. Two years later, Ming has escaped and is ready for retribution. Infused with magic realism, Lin’s beautifully imagined first novel is a transcendent epic.
NONFICTION FINALISTS
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019
Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain
(One World, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC)
African American history is a communal quilt, crisscrossed with the stitches of elders, youth, LGBTQ folk, mothers, fathers, revolutionaries, and poets. Editors Kendi and Blain honor this multilayered heritage in a monumental work of collaborative history. Ninety Black writers each take on a five-year period from 1619–2019, and each 40-year section concludes with a poem adding up to a seamless collection that crackles with rage, beauty, bitter humor, and the indomitable will to survive.
A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance
Hanif Abdurraqib
(Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC)
Blending pop-culture essays, memoir, and poetry, Abdurraqib delves into the many iterations of Black artistic expression through an often deeply personal lens. Divided into five “movements,” these pieces offer an expansive exploration of subjects ranging from the often-tragic lives of legendary Black artists to close examination of a singular performance. Startling, layered and timely, this is an essential, illuminating collection.
Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness.
Kristen Radtke
(Pantheon Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC)
Radtke examines isolation as a social, biological, and personal phenomenon in a graphic-essay style, centering her inquiry around four human behaviors—listen, watch, click and touching—and considering television, American “loners,” social media, and the need for touch in prose and vector-drawn illustrations, rendering contextual and emotional detail in a provocative and engaging look at loneliness.
LONGLIST
FICTION
Click images to enlarge
Cortez, Jaime.
Gordo.
(Black Cat)
Doerr, Anthony.
Cloud Cuckoo Land.
(Scribner)
Engel, Patricia.
Infinite Country.
(Avid Reader)
Erdrich, Louise.
The Sentence.
(Harper)
Fernández, Nona.
Translated by Natasha Wimmer.
The Twilight Zone.
(Graywolf)
Galgut, Damon.
The Promise.
(Europa)
Gendry-Kim, Keum Suk.
The Waiting.
(Drawn & Quarterly)
Griner, Paul.
The Book of Otto and Liam.
(Sarabande Books)
Groff, Lauren.
Matrix.
(Riverhead Books)
Harris, Nathan.
The Sweetness of Water.
(Little, Brown)
Ishiguro, Kazuo.
Klara and the Sun.
(Knopf)
Lin, Tom.
The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu.
(Little, Brown)
McConaghy, Charlotte.
Once There Were Wolves.
(Flatiron)
Mott, Jason.
Hell of a Book.
(Dutton)
Murakami, Haruki.
First Person Singular.
(Knopf)
Nguyen, Eric.
Things We Lost to the Water.
(Knopf)
Powers, Richard.
Bewilderment.
(Norton)
Quade, Kirstin Valdez.
The Five Wounds.
(Norton)
Sahota, Sunjeev.
China Room.
(Viking)
Shipstead, Maggie.
Great Circle.
(Knopf)
Slimani, Leila.
In the Country of Others.
(Penguin Books)
So, Anthony Veasna.
Afterparties.
(Ecco)
Ye, Chun.
Hao.
(Catapult)
NONFICTION
Click images to enlarge
Abdurraqib, Hanif.
A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance.
(Random House)
Brown, Daniel James.
Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II.
(Viking)
Dreilinger, Danielle.
The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live.
(Norton)
Dunn, Jon.
The Glitter in the Green: In Search of Hummingbirds.
(Basic)
Ellsworth, Scott.
The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice.
(Dutton)
Flynn, Sean.
Why Peacocks? An Unlikely Search for Meaning in the World's Most Magnificent Bird.
(Simon & Schuster)
Green, John.
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet.
(Dutton)
Harjo, Joy.
Poet Warrior.
(Norton)
Hudes, Quiara Alegría.
My Broken Language.
(One World)
Jobb, Dean.
The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer.
(Algonquin)
Keefer, Patrick Radden.
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty.
(Doubleday)
Kendi, Ibram X. and Keisha N. Blain.
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019.
(One World)
Kolbert, Elizabeth.
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future.
(Crown)
Lee, Hermione.
Tom Stoppard: A Life.
(Knopf)
Marçal, Katrine.
Mother of Invention: How Good Ideas Get Ignored in an Economy Built for Men.
(Abrams)
McGhee, Heather.
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together.
(One World)
Meiburg, Jonathan.
A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World’s Smartest Birds of Prey.
(Knopf)
Quinones, Sam.
The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Age of Fentanyl and Meth.
(Bloomsbury)
Radtke, Kristen.
Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness.
(Pantheon)
Rembert, Winfred.
Chasing Me to My Grave: Memoir of the Jim Crow South.
(Bloomsbury)
Roach, Mary.
Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law.
(Norton)
Ruhl, Sarah.
Smile: The Story of a Face.
(Simon & Schuster)