Submissions Open for the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize on October 1

October 1, 2024

OAKLAND, CA— New Literary Project announces that submissions are now open for the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize. The $50,000 Prize celebrates an author of fiction in mid-career, beyond recognition of a single literary work. Prize winners receive the award to honor their distinguished achievement and to encourage and support future work. Writers based in the United States who have published at least two notable full-length works of fiction (novels and/or short stories) are eligible. Submissions close on October 31, 2024.

This is the ninth annual award offered by the not-for-profit New Literary Project (NewLit), founded in 2015, which inspires and equips writers across the generations—in the words of Joyce Carol Oates—to “write their hearts out.” Through a variety of innovative initiatives, including the Prize, the organization drives social change, unleashes artistic power, and lifts up a literate, democratic society.

The Joyce Carol Oates Prize celebrates authors who advance the vision and mission of NewLit. They are emerged and continually emerging writers of major consequence—short stories and/or novels—at the relative midpoint of a burgeoning career. 

The Joyce Carol Oates Prize is a working prize, and the prize-winning author will take up brief residence with the University of California, Berkeley, English Department and in the Bay Area, including Saint Mary’s College of California–teaching and public speaking–in October 2025, dates to be determined.

The Prize is offered by NewLit, collaborating with its marquee partner, the University of California, Berkeley, English Department. Based in Oakland, California, NewLit appreciates the trust of generous individuals as well as altruistic family foundations and corporate donors who subscribe to its vision and sustain its multifaceted programs. Prize-winning authors’ publishers are expected to contribute their meaningful support and whole-hearted good will. 

“Over the last eight years, we have been consistently dazzled by the nominated authors and cheered by the bracing vitality of literary publishing. Since 2016, we have longlisted 310 writers from fifty-five publishing houses, forty of whom became finalists, and eight of whom were named Joyce Carol Oates Prize Recipients. We very much look forward to considering this year’s nominees and to celebrating them and their publishers.”
—Joseph Di Prisco, NewLit founder and chair

General Submission Process for Joyce Carol Oates Prize

● Publishers, editors, agents, publicists, marketers, and authors themselves may complete the online entry form and submit associated submission fees no later than 8:59 p.m. Pacific Time on October 31, 2024 through the Submittable link.
●  $75 entry fee for each submission of a mid-career author based in the United States: that is, an author with at least two published full-length books of fiction composed in English (novels and/or short stories) and one who has yet to garner capstone recognition (such as a Pulitzer, NBA, or MacArthur)—that is, an author who is in the relatively middle stage of a burgeoning career.

• Accepted forms of payment include credit card and PayPal. (No checks permitted.) Please be prepared with payment information before beginning online submission process.

• Submissions include author’s current work of full-length fiction (novel or book of short stories) in a pdf. (Physical books will be later requested from authors designated on the Longlist.)

● Submissions deemed ineligible by the Project will still be subject to the stated entry fee.

● NewLit may on its own initiative invite submissions.
● Each submission must list one person (with contact information, including email and phone) to coordinate all Prize–related matters. This person will be contacted in the case that an author becomes part of the Longlist or the subsequent shortlist of Finalists.
● Author must be made aware of and consent to prize entry; author’s email and contact information required.
 

Longlist, Shortlist, and Prize Recipient Announcements

●  On or around November 11, 2024, New Literary Project will request physical books and additional information for authors identified for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize Longlist. Please do not send physical books or any additional information or materials unless specifically requested. Longlist books and materials must then be delivered no later than November 21, 2024 to remain eligible—sent to a postal address to be identified.

• 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize Longlist announced on or around December 5, 2024

• 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize Finalists announced early March 2025

• 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize Recipient announced in April 2025

2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize Recipient Guidelines

●  $50,000 awarded an author in recognition of mid-career literary achievement and future promise.

●  Author’s publisher pledges whole-hearted support and good will with respect to the Joyce Carol Oates Prize Fall Residency and to related activities of the Prize Recipient and New Literary Project.
● Recipient collaborates with NewLit, sponsors, and the University of California, Berkeley, English Department on NewLit–related engagements during the Prize year.

This is a working prize: the Prize Recipient will be in brief residence (seven or so days) at the University of California, Berkeley, and in the Bay Area in Fall 2025, during a period to be mutually determined (usually October). During the residence the Recipient teaches classes at Cal and Saint Mary’s, gives readings and talks, and makes public appearances coordinated by NewLit.

New Literary Project
Previous Joyce Carol Oates Prize Winners, with representative publication, are listed below. They are expected to continue engagements with New Literary Project:

2024 Ben Fountain, author of Devil Makes Three (Flatiron) 
2023 Manuel Muñoz, author of The Consequences (Graywolf Press) 
2022 Lauren Groff, author of Matrix (Riverhead) 
2021 Danielle Evans, author of The Office of Historical Corrections (Riverhead) 
2020 Daniel Mason, author of The Winter Soldier (Little, Brown)
2019 Laila Lalami, author of The Other Americans (Pantheon)
2018 Anthony Marra, author of The Tsar of Love and Techno (Hogarth)
2017 T. Geronimo Johnson, author of Welcome to Braggsville (HarperCollins)

New Literary Project, a not-for-profit created in 2015, fosters new literature, supports authors, and enhances the lives of readers, writers, educators, librarians, and high school and college students in diverse communities in California and the nation. Along with the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, the Project offers high school-age writers Bonetti-Bell Writing Workshops and Starn Writing Workshops at no cost, led by Bonetti-Bell Fellows and Starn Fellows, UC Berkeley graduate student creative writing teachers and Saint Mary’s College of California MFA creative writing teachers; in Spring 2025 nine workshops are expected to take place at Contra Costa County Juvenile Hall, Girls Inc. Alameda County, Northgate High School, and elsewhere. In addition, NewLit publishes an internationally distributed annual anthology of Project-related artists, including Prize winners and finalists along with younger writers appearing in print for the first time.

Simpsonistas: Tales from New Literary Project Vol. 6 (Rare Bird) launches in Fall 2024. NewLit also offers Jack Hazard Summer Fellowships, $5,000 each to twelve to fifteen creative writers teaching high school anywhere in the United States. 

For more information, please contact:

Diane Del Signore, Executive Director, (510) 919-0970

diane@newliteraryproject.org
https://www.newliteraryproject.org/