Miami Book Fair is proud to partner with the National Book Foundation to present the 15th annual 5 Under 35 Ceremony to honor five fiction writers under the age of 35: K-Ming Chang (Bestiary), Naima Coster (Halsey Street), Raven Leilani (Luster), Fatima Farheen Mirza (A Place for Us), and C Pam Zhang (How Much of These Hills Is Gold). Their selectors—2019 National Book Award Winner Susan Choi, 2019 National Book Award Finalist Marlon James, 2018 National Book Award Longlister Tayari Jones, 2018 National Book Award Longlister Tommy Orange, and 2012 5 Under 35 honoree Justin Torres—introduce the debut authors who read an excerpt of their work and participate in a live question-and-answer session with the audience.
Throughout their vivid debuts, the five authors honored this evening tackle family dynamics, identity, mythology, race, and the many meanings of discovery. For the first time in 5 Under 35 history, all of the honorees are women of color. The 2020 cohort has been longlisted by the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and the Booker Prize; and shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction and the Lambda Literary Awards. Honorees’ writing has been published by the New York Times, The Cut, Granta, The Paris Review Daily, Kweli, The Yale Review, and more.
This program of the National Book Foundation is supported by the Amazon Literary Partnership.
Sponsored by
The 2019 5 Under 35 Honorees are:
K-Ming Chang, Bestiary
One World / Penguin Random House
Selected by Justin Torres, 2012 5 Under 35 Honoree
Naima Coster, Halsey Street
Little A / Amazon Publishing
Selected by Tayari Jones, 2018 National Book Award Longlist for Fiction
Raven Leilani, Luster
Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers
Selected by Susan Choi, 2019 National Book Award Winner for Fiction
Fatima Farheen Mirza, A Place for Us
SJP for Hogarth / Penguin Random House
Selected by Tommy Orange, 2018 National Book Award Longlist for Fiction
C Pam Zhang, How Much of These Hills Is Gold
Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House
Selected by Marlon James, 2019 National Book Award Finalist for Fiction