The Center for Fiction 2013 First Novel Prize (then called the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize) was awarded to Margaret Wrinkle for her debut novel Wash (Atlantic Monthly Press). Read about Wash below and browse 2013’s shortlisted and longlisted titles.
This annual award was created in 2006 to honor the best first novel of the year. Debut novels published between January 1 and December 31 of the award year are eligible. The winner is announced in December at our Annual Awards Benefit.
Winner
- Wash by Margaret Wrinkle (Atlantic Monthly Press)
Shortlist
- A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra (Hogarth)
- Eleven Days by Lea Carpenter (Alfred A. Knopf)
- Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi (The Penguin Press)
- The Morels by Christopher Hacker (Soho Press)
- Motherlunge by Kirstin Scott (New Issues Poetry & Prose)
- The Residue Years by Mitchell S. Jackson (Bloomsbury)
- Y by Marjorie Celona (Free Press/Simon & Schuster)
Longlist
- Any Resemblance to Actual Persons by Kevin Allardice (Counterpoint)
- The Blood of Heaven by Kent Wascom (Grove Press)
- The Carriage House by Louisa Hall (Scribner)
- Elders by Ryan McIlvain (Hogarth)
- In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods by Matt Bell (Soho Press)
- The Next Time You See Me by Holly Goddard Jones (Touchstone)
- The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow by Rita Leganski (Harper Paperbacks)
- Southern Cross the Dog by Bill Cheng (Ecco)
- Tampa by Alissa Nutting (Ecco)
- A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri (Riverhead Books)
- The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher Jansma (Viking)
- Wise Men by Stuart Nadler (Reagan Arthur Books/ Little, Brown and Co.)
- The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani (Riverhead Books)
- You Are One of Them by Elliott Holt (The Penguin Press)
2013 Winner
-
.
Wash
By Margaret Wrinkle
Published by Atlantic Monthly Press
In early 1800s Tennessee, two men find themselves locked in an intimate power struggle. Richardson, a troubled Revolutionary War veteran, has spent his life fighting not only for his country but also for wealth and status. When the pressures of westward expansion and debt threaten to destroy everything he’s built, he sets Washington, a young man he owns, to work as his breeding sire. Wash, the first member of his family to be born into slavery, struggles to hold onto his only solace: the spirituality inherited from his shamanic mother. As he navigates the treacherous currents of his position, despair and disease lead him to a potent healer named Pallas. Their tender love unfolds against this turbulent backdrop while she inspires him to forge a new understanding of his heritage and his place in it. Once Richardson and Wash find themselves at a crossroads, all three lives are pushed to the brink.
