Bookstore and Café & Bar
The Center for Fiction Bookstore carries fiction and nonfiction for all ages, featuring bestsellers, imports, and rare finds alike. We are open every day for in-store shopping. To order items for pick-up and delivery, please visit our online store.
Stop by the Café & Bar for coffee, tea, espresso, beer, wine, cocktails, and light bites! Catch up on morning reading with a cappuccino, enjoy an afternoon glass of wine, or start your evening with a signature cocktail. To browse our menu, click here. To provide feedback for the Café & Bar, please fill out this form.
Members receive 10% off Bookstore and Café & Bar purchases. Join today!
Bookstore and Café & Bar
Open Daily: 11am–8pm
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Bookstore Picks
Cooking Up a Storm
The holiday season is often a time for gathering in the kitchen or entertaining friends and family. This week we have a roundup... -
Bookstore Picks
Late Editions
As we approach the holiday season, there are some stellar books still to come. This week, two novels tackle a group effort to save the world -
Bookstore Picks
Natural Selection
Let’s be thankful this November for these five extraordinary writers with new works of fiction. We have a master of prose returning... -
Only Connect
To take the sting out of the end of Daylight Saving Time, we’ve started compiling your cold weather reading lists, including... -
Bookstore Picks
How Spooky
As we approach Halloween it seems timely to read fiction that is in some way ghostly. This week each book has disturbing aspects... -
Bookstore Picks
Take the Journey
These five books are examples of what reading pleasures still await in the fall season. An extraordinary portrait of an enslaved... -
Bookstore Picks
Dénouement
This week we have murder in Bordeaux, as well as in British Malaya (by an author we have the pleasure of hosting); a rumination... -
Bookstore Picks
Stories to Tell
Four striking collections of stories, and the most recent novel by a prize-winning queer Black writer who is launching his book... -
Bookstore Picks
How We Live
This week we have two powerful memoirs from writers who came to the U.S. after difficult childhoods; the funniest novel you’ll... -
Bookstore Picks
Places Between
An Italian dystopian future; an epic novel about the natural world through the lens of a single dwelling; a South African writer’s... -
Bookstore Picks
What’s Going On
With September in full swing there are many events to celebrate. We mark the beginning of National Hispanic Literature Month... -
Getting By
Characters, real and imagined, deal with the hands they were dealt—whether it is surviving the contemporary pandemic, hunger... -
Bookstore Picks
Looking Forward, Looking Back
Whether it’s due to growing up celebrating the Jewish New Year or from living in New York where September brings a deluge... -
Bookstore Picks
Search and You Will Find
This week look for a Korean American father who goes missing; a harrowing novel about survival in the sea; a portrait of a 19th... -
Bookstore Picks
Emotional Disturbances
This week’s characters are often on the brink: a housewife dangerously weary of her life; a Dublin family hanging by a thread... -
Bookstore Picks
Style and Substance
This week there is a plethora of styles and genres: a dystopian pandemic novel; an old-school fictional biography; a tale of... -
Bookstore Picks
Under Pressure
Three tension-filled works of fiction by highly acclaimed authors present characters and plots driven in part by racial differences... -
Bookstore Picks
Artistic License
From the Harlem Renaissance to Midwestern nostalgia, the facade of perfection, interracial romance, and a Pakistani character’s... -
Endless Summer
Sometimes high summer zaps all your energy except the ability to be prone and read a page-turning novel. This week, reunions... -
Bookstore Picks
A Closer Look
This week’s authors are keen observers of American culture. For antic humor there is the second installment of a prize-winning...
A Novel Approach
The Center for Fiction will handcraft a year’s worth of reading for you or your loved one based on a 45-minute personal consultation. At a crossroads? Get insight from great literature on life’s big moments—getting married or having an affair, moving abroad, changing jobs, or having a child. And even if you don’t plan on having a big year, we can still help select books that will be perfect for wherever you are right now!
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First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction 2023 First Novel Prize Shortlist
We are pleased to announce the shortlist for The Center for Fiction 2023 First Novel Prize. These seven titles were selected... -
The Center for Fiction 2023 First Novel Prize Longlist
We are pleased to announce the longlist for The Center for Fiction 2023 First Novel Prize. The twenty-five debut novels were... -
First Novel Prize
2022 First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction 2022 First Novel Prize was awarded to Noor Naga for her debut novel If an Egyptian... -
First Novel Prize
2021 First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction 2021 First Novel Prize was awarded to Kirstin Valdez Quade for her debut novel The... -
First Novel Prize
2020 First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction 2020 First Novel Prize was awarded to Raven Leilani for her debut novel Luster (Farrar... -
First Novel Prize
2019 First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction 2019 First Novel Prize was awarded to De’Shawn Charles Winslow for his debut novel... -
2018 First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction 2018 First Novel Prize was awarded to Tommy Orange for his debut novel There There (Alfred A -
First Novel Prize
2017 First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction 2017 First Novel Prize was awarded to Julie Lekstrom Hines for her debut novel Mikhail... -
First Novel Prize
2016 First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction 2016 First Novel Prize was awarded to Kia Corthron for her debut novel The Castle... -
First Novel Prize
2015 First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction 2015 First Novel Prize was awarded to Viet Thanh Nguyen for his debut novel The Sympathizer... -
First Novel Prize
2014 First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction 2014 First Novel Prize (then called the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize) was awarded to Tiphanie... -
First Novel Prize
2013 First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction 2013 First Novel Prize (then called the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize) was awarded to Margaret... -
First Novel Prize
2012 First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction 2012 First Novel Prize (then called the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize) was awarded to Ben... -
First Novel Prize
2011 First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction 2011 First Novel Prize (then called the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize) was awarded to Bonnie... -
First Novel Prize
2010 First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction 2010 First Novel Prize (then called the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize) was awarded to Karl... -
First Novel Prize
2009 First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction 2009 First Novel Prize (then called the John Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize) was awarded to John... -
First Novel Prize
2008 First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction 2008 First Novel Prize (then called the John Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize) was awarded to Hannah... -
First Novel Prize
2007 First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction 2007 First Novel Prize (then called the John Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize) was awarded to Junot... -
2006 First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction’s inaugural First Novel Prize (then called the John Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize) was awarded... -
First Novel Prize
First Novel Prize Winners: The Complete List
Debut novels from Marisha Pessl, Junot Díaz, Hannah Tinti, John Pipkin, Karl Marlantes, Bonnie Nadzam, Ben Fountain, Margaret...
Featured
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Story Time
Ann Dowd Reads Story Boat by Kyo Maclear
Luminous, award-winning actor Ann Dowd joins us once again to share Kyo Maclear’s Story Boat, an imaginative and lyrical picture... -
Story Time
André Holland Reads Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry
Based on the Oscar-Winning short film, Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry tells the story of Zuri, a young girl with beautiful hair, who... -
Story Time
Lili Taylor Reads The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld
Actress Lili Taylor joins us again to share The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfield. With its spare, poignant text and irresistibly sweet...
