2020 Simpson/Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize Longlist Finalists Announced
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Longlist Finalists to Contend for Annual $50,000 Fiction Prize Recognizing Midcareer Authors
LAFAYETTE, CA, November 14, 2019—The Longlist Finalists for the 4th Annual 2020 Simpson / Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize recognizing mid-career authors in fiction were officially announced today privately. See the full press release for the list. The $50,000 Prize is awarded to an author of fiction in the middle of a burgeoning career. The Prize is administered by the Simpson Literary Project, which is the collaboration of the Lafayette Library and Learning Center Foundation and the University of California, Berkeley, English Department. The Longlist Finalists (attached) were selected from official submissions by publishers, agents, authors, and author representatives.
Our distinguished Simpson / Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize Longlisted authors represent the inspiring richness of storytelling in our country. The list also speaks eloquently to the vitality of literary publishing, as evidenced by the great range of impressive publishers and editors whose eminently worthy authors are under consideration. The Simpson Literary Project, with our investment in writing across a great social and generational spectrum, speaks to the highest ideals of both the Lafayette Library and Learning Center and the UC Berkeley English Department. Where we celebrate stories and their makers, we affirm the best of our diverse culture and underscore our shared humanity.
— Joseph Di Prisco, Founding Chair, Simpson Literary Project
The Shortlist Finalists are expected to be named in early March 2020 and will receive $2,000 for participating in the Literary Project, followed by the announcement of a Winner in early April 2020. Recipients will give readings in the Bay Area in October 2020, and participate in a two-week residence in Lafayette and Berkeley, California, during the Spring Semester 2021.
The Simpson Literary Project, established in 2015, is an innovative private/public partnership between the University of California, Berkeley, English Department and the Lafayette Library and Learning Center Foundation and the Contra Costa County Library. The Project fosters new literature, and enhances the lives of authors, readers, writers, educators, and students in diverse communities in California and the nation. The Project supports storytellers and storytelling across the generations, leading writing workshops for underserved young people inside and outside of schools, and hosting readings and presentations of distinguished authors. Joyce Carol Oates was the Simpson Project Writer-in-Residence at the Lafayette Library and Learning Center in 2017 and 2018.
In addition, 2017 Simpson Literary Prize Winner, T. Geronimo Johnson, author of Welcome to Braggsville (HarperCollins), 2018 Simpson Literary Prize Winner Anthony Marra, author of The Tsar of Love and Techno (Hogarth), and 2019 Simpson Literary Prize winner Laila Lalami, author of The Other Americans (Pantheon), will continue their efforts and engagements with the Simpson Literary Project.
For more information, please contact Diane Del Signore at 510.919.0970 or email at diane@simpsonliteraryproject.org.