The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize 2025 shortlist announced

Rickey Fayne, Justin Haynes, and Alejandro Heredia are on the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize 2025 shortlist, announced on Tuesday, September 30, 2025.

The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize is an annual award presented by The Center for Fiction, a non-profit organization in New York, USA, since 2006. It recognizes the year’s best debut novel as selected by a panel of distinguished American writers and carries with it an award of $15,000. Previous winners include Joseph Earl Thomas, Raven Leilani, De’Shawn Charles Winslow, Tiphanie Yanique, Junot Diaz, and Margaret Wrinkle.

For 2025, the prize received 185 submitted titles with U.S. publication dates between January 1 and December 31, 2025. From these submissions, the longlist was announced on Wednesday, July 23, before the shortlist was made public on September 30. The jury of Xochitl Gonzalez, Adam Haslett, Tracy O’Neill, and Joseph Earl Thomas included the following writers of African descent on the shortlist;

• The Devil Three Times by Rickey Fayne (Hachette Book Group / Little, Brown and Company)
• Ibis by Justin Haynes (Abrams / The Overlook Press)
• Loca by Alejandro Heredia (Simon & Schuster)

The 2025 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize winner will be announced at The Center for Fiction’s Annual Awards Benefit in New York City on Tuesday, December 9, 2025.