NEW YORK, NY.- The New York Public Library announces the five finalists for the Young Lions Fiction Award, honoring the work of exceptional young and early-career authors.

The finalists are:

• ‘Pemi Aguda for Ghostroots
• Eliza Barry Callahan for The Hearing Test
• Alexander Sammartino for Last Acts
• Santiago Jose Sanchez for Hombrecito
• Karla Cornejo Villavicencio for Catalina

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Young Lions Fiction Award. Founded in 2001, the Award is given each year to an American writer aged 35 or younger for either a novel or a collection of short stories. Five young fiction writers are selected as finalists by a committee of writers, editors, and librarians. A panel of award judges will select the winner of this year’s $10,000 prize.

The winner will be announced during an award ceremony on June 12, 2025 at 7 PM in the Celeste Bartos Forum of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Award, a reception following the ceremony will be held this year.

Last year, E.J. Koh won the Young Lions Fiction Award for The Liberators, a critically-acclaimed, generation-spanning saga of two Korean families. Past winners also include: Zain Khalid for Brother Alive; Kalani Pickhart for I Will Die in a Foreign Land; Catherine Lacey for Pew; Bryan Washington for Lot; and Ling Ma for Severance.

In addition, finalists from over the years have included Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah for Chain Gang All-Stars; C Pam Zhang for Land of Milk and Honey; Alexanda Kleeman for Something New Under the Sun; Brandon Taylor for Real Life; Kiley Reid for Such a Fun Age; Brit Bennett for The Mothers; Jesmyn Ward for Salvage the Bones; Teju Cole for Open City; and Julia Phillips for Disappearing Earth.

The New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award was created by Ethan Hawke, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, Rick Moody, and Hannah McFarland.