Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction

The Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction is an American literary award presented by the American Academy of Arts and Letters for debut publications. The $5,000 prize is given for the best published first novel or collection of short stories in the preceding year. It was established in 1979 in memory of author Sue Kaufman.

Past winners

Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction winners^[1]

Year	Author	Title	Ref.
1980	Jayne Anne Phillips	Black Tickets	[2]
1981	Tom Lorenz	Guys Like Us
1982	Ted Mooney	Easy Travel to Other Planets
1983	Susanna Moore	My Old Sweetheart
1984	Denis Johnson	Angels	[3]
1985	Louise Erdrich	Love Medicine
1986	Cecile Pineda	Face
1987	Jeannette Haien	The All of It
1988	Kaye Gibbons	Ellen Foster	[4]
1989	Gary Krist	The Garden State
1990	Allan Gurganus	Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
1991	Charles Palliser	The Quincunx
1992	Alex Ullmann	Afghanistan
1993	Francisco Goldman	The Long Night of White Chickens	[5][6]
1994	Emile Capouya	In the Sparrow Hills
1995	Jim Grimsley	Winter Birds
1996	Peter Landesman	The Raven
1997	Brad Watson	Last Days of the Dog-Men	[7]
1998	Charles Frazier	Cold Mountain
1999	Michael Byers	The Coast of Good Intentions
2000	Nathan Englander	For the Relief of Unbearable Urges	[8]
2001	Akhil Sharma	An Obedient Father
2002	Don Lee	Yellow	[9]
2003	Gabe Hudson	Dear Mr. President
2004	Nell Freudenberger	Lucky Girls
2005	John Dalton	Heaven Lake
2006	Uzodinma Iweala	Beasts of No Nation
2007	Tony D'Souza	Whiteman
2008	Frances Hwang	Transparency
2009	Charles Bock	Beautiful Children
2010	Josh Weil	The New Valley
2011	Brando Skyhorse	The Madonnas of Echo Park
2012	Ismet Prcic	Shards
2013	Kevin Powers	The Yellow Birds
2014	Manuel Gonzales	The Miniature Wife	[10]
2015	Michael Carroll	Little Reef and Other Stories	[11]
2016	Kirstin Valdez Quade	Night at the Fiestas
2017	Lee Clay Johnson	Nitro Mountain
2018	Emily Fridlund	History of Wolves	[12]
2019	Jane Delury	The Balcony	[13]
2020	Isabella Hammad	The Parisian	[14]
2021	Douglas Stuart	Shuggie Bain	[15]
2022	Jackie Polzin	Brood
2023	Morgan Talty	Night of the Living Rez	[16]