Fall for the Book Announces the 2026 New American Voices Award Longlist
This October, Fall for the Book and George Mason University’s Institute for Immigration Research are proud to celebrate the ninth New American Voices Award–a post-publication book prize recognizing the work of first-generation writers. From the many entries, judges Donna Hemans, Angie Cruz, and Weike Wang have put together a powerful longlist.
The seven books celebrated on the New American Voices Award Longlist are:
- Cages, Chantel Acevedo (Europa Editions)
- Men Like Ours, Bindu Bansinath (Bloomsbury)
- Pretend You’re Dead and I Carry You, Julián Delgado Lopera (Liveright / WW Norton)
- Keeper of My Kin: Memoir of an Immigrant Daughter, Ada Ferrer (Scribner)
- Nadezhda in the Dark, Yelena Moskovich (Dzanc Books)
- Elected American: From Red China to Blue Maryland, Lily Qi (Temple University Press)
- People Who Live Alone Talk Too Much, Sofi Stambo (Restless Books)
The three finalists will be announced later this summer, and they will join the judges for an award ceremony and reading to discuss their work. The event will be hosted by Fall for the Book during the October festival at George Mason University’s Fairfax, VA Campus. Previous winners of the New American Voices Award are: Hernan Diaz’s In the Distance, Melissa Rivero’s The Affairs of the Falcóns, Lysley Tenorio’s The Son of Good Fortune, Patricia Engel’s Infinite Country, Sindya Bhanoo’s Seeking Fortune Elsewhere, Rachel Heng’s The Great Reclamation, Shahnaz Habib’s Airplane Mode, and Shubha Sunder’s Optional Practice Training.
About the Judges
Angie Cruz is a novelist and editor. Her most recent novel How Not To Drown in A Glass of Water was a finalist for the 2024 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, shortlisted for The Aspen Words Literary Prize, winner of the Gold Medal, Latino Book Award/The Isabel Allende Most Inspirational Book Award, longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize and chosen for The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2022 and The Washington Post 50 Notable Works of Fiction. Her novel, Dominicana was the inaugural book pick for GMA book club and shortlisted for The Women’s Prize, longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction, a RUSA Notable book and the winner of the ALA/YALSA Alex Award in fiction. Cruz is the author of two other novels, Soledad and Let It Rain Coffee and the recipient of numerous fellowships, residencies and awards including the 2025 USA Fellowship, The Poets & Writers /Writers For Writers Award, and the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature. She’s the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the award winning literary journal, Aster(ix) and teaches at Columbia University.
Donna Hemans is the author of three novels, River Woman, Tea by the Sea, and The House of Plain Truth. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in Electric Literature, Ms. Magazine, Oprah Daily, and Crab Orchard Review, among others. She received her undergraduate degree in English and Media Studies from Fordham University and an MFA from American University. She serves on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and is also the owner of DC Writers Room, a co-working studio for writers based in Washington, D.C.
Weike Wang is the author of Chemistry, Joan is Okay, and Rental House. She is the recipient of a Pen Hemingway, a Whiting award and a National Book Foundation 5 under 35. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s Magazine, Best American Short Stories and has won two O. Henry Prizes. She earned her MFA from Boston University and her other degrees from Harvard. She currently lives in New York City and teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Barnard College and Boston University.