Believer Book Award is an American literary award presented yearly by '' The Believer'' magazine to novels and story collections, nonfiction books or essay collections, poetry collections, and, beginning in 2021 (awarding to books published in 2020), works of graphic narrative the magazine's editors thought were the "strongest and most under-appreciated" of the year. A shortlist and longlist are announced for each genre, along with reader's favorites, then a final winner is selected by the magazine's editors. The inaugural award was in 2005 for books published in 2004.

Winners and shortlist

The year below denotes when the books were published; the award is announced the following year. Thus below, the inaugural 2004 books were announced in early to mid-2005. Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger ()

2004

The shortlist was announced in February 2005. The winner was announced in March 2005. *

Sam Lipsyte Sam Lipsyte (born 1968) is an American novelist and short story writer. Life The son of the sports journalist Robert Lipsyte, Sam Lipsyte was born in New York City and raised in Closter, New Jersey, where he attended Northern Valley Regional High ...

, ''Home Land'' *

Michelle de Kretser Michelle de Kretser (born 1957) is an Australian novelist who was born in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), and moved to Australia in 1972 when she was 14. Education and literary career De Kretser was educated at Methodist College, Colombo, and in Melbou ...

, ''

The Hamilton Case ''The Hamilton Case'' is a 2003 novel by Australian literature, Australian author Michelle de Kretser. The book won the Commonwealth Writers Prize (SE Asia & Pacific) and the Encore Award (UK). The work centres on the lives of the somewhat eccentr ...

'' * Lucy Ellmann, ''Dot in the Universe'' * Selah Saterstrom, ''The Pink Institution'' *

Francisco Goldman Francisco Goldman (born 1954) is an American novelist, journalist, and Allen K. Smith Professor of Literature and Creative Writing, Trinity College. His most recent novel, ''Monkey Boy'' (2021), was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Fi ...

, ''The Divine Husband''

2005

The shortlist was announced in February 2006. The winner was announced in March 2006. *

Sesshu Foster Sesshu Foster (born April 5, 1957) is an American poet and novelist. Sesshu Foster is a Japanese-American poet of white and Nisei descent. He grew up on Los Angeles’ East Side and came of age in the primarily Chicano neighborhood of City Ter ...

, ''Atomik Aztex'' * Trinie Dalton, ''Wide Eyed'' *

Aimee Bender Aimee Bender (born June 28, 1969) is an American novelist and short story writer, known for her surreal stories and characters. She is a 2011 recipient of the Alex Awards. Biography Born to a Jewish family, Bender received her undergraduate de ...

, ''Willful Creatures'' * John Wray, ''Canaan's Tongue'' *

Tom Bissell Tom Bissell (born January 9, 1974) is an American journalist, critic, and fiction writer. In 2021, he co-developed the television series ''The Mosquito Coast (TV series), The Mosquito Coast'' based on the novel of the same name. He is also known ...

, ''God Lives in St. Petersburg''

2006

The winner, and reader survey of best books, was announced in May 2007. *

Cormac McCarthy Cormac McCarthy (born Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr., July 20, 1933) is an American writer who has written twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays and three short stories, spanning the Western and post-apocalyptic genres. He is known for his gr ...

, ''

The Road ''The Road'' is a 2006 post-apocalyptic novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy. The book details the grueling journey of a father and his young son over a period of several months across a landscape blasted by an unspecified cataclysm that ha ...

'' * Reader and writer survey of best books.

2007

The shortlist was announced in May 2008. The winner was announced in June 2008. *

Tom McCarthy Thomas McCarthy (also Tom and Tommy) may refer to: Academia *Thomas A. McCarthy (born 1940), American professor of philosophy *Thomas J. McCarthy (born 1956), American professor of polymer chemistry at the University of Massachusetts *J. Thomas Mc ...

, ''

Remainder In mathematics, the remainder is the amount "left over" after performing some computation. In arithmetic, the remainder is the integer "left over" after dividing one integer by another to produce an integer quotient (integer division). In algebr ...

'' *

Jesse Ball Jesse Ball (born June 7, 1978) is an American novelist and poet. He has published novels, volumes of poetry, short stories, and drawings. His works are distinguished by the use of a spare style and have been compared to those of Jorge Luis Borges ...

, ''Samedi the Deafness'' * Gerard Donovan, ''Sunless'' *

Steve Erickson Stephen Michael Erickson is an American novelist. The author of influential works such as ''Days Between Stations'', '' Tours of the Black Clock'' and '' Zeroville'', he is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, the American Academy of Arts a ...

, '' Zeroville'' * Elizabeth Hand, ''

Generation Loss Generation loss is the loss of quality between subsequent copies or transcodes of data. Anything that reduces the quality of the representation when copying, and would cause further reduction in quality on making a copy of the copy, can be consid ...

'' * Alain Mabanckou, ''African Psycho'' * Miranda Mellis, ''The Revisionist'' * Lydie Salvayre, ''The Power of Flies'' * Selah Saterstrom, ''The Meat and Spirit Plan'' *

Joe Weisberg Joseph Weisberg is an American television writer, producer, novelist, and school teacher. Weisberg is best known as the creator and showrunner of the FX TV series ''The Americans''. Career A 1987 graduate of Yale University, Weisberg became a C ...

, ''An Ordinary Spy''

2008

The shortlist was announced in February 2009. The winner was announced in March 2009. *

Emily Perkins Emily Jean Perkins (born May 4, 1977) is a Canadian former actress, best known for her roles as Crystal Braywood in the TV series ''Hiccups'', young Beverly Marsh in '' Stephen King's It'', and Brigitte Fitzgerald in ''Ginger Snaps''. Since the l ...

, '' Novel About My Wife'' *

Samantha Hunt Samantha Hunt (born May 15, 1971) is an American novelist, essayist and short-story writer. She is the author of ''The Dark Dark'' and ''The Unwritten Book'', published by Farrar, Straus, Giroux; ''The Seas'', published by MacAdam/Cage and Tin ...

, ''The Invention of Everything Else'' *

Mary Ruefle Mary Ruefle (born 1952) is an American poet, essayist, and professor. She has published many collections of poetry, the most recent of which, ''Dunce'' (Wave Books, 2019), was longlisted for the National Book Award in Poetry and was a finalist f ...

, ''The Most of It'' * John Olson, ''Souls of Wind'' *

Jim Krusoe Jim Krusoe is an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. His stories and poems have appeared in '' Antioch Review'', ''Denver Quarterly'', '' BOMB'', '' Iowa Review'', '' Field'', ''North American Review'', '' American Poetry Review'', ...

, ''Girl Factory'' * Tod Wodicka, ''All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well'' * Toby Olson, ''Tampico'' * Shannon Burke, ''Black Flies''

2009

The shortlist was announced in March 2010. The winner was announced in May 2010. *

Percival Everett Percival Everett (born December 22, 1956) is an American writer and Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California. Life Everett lives in Los Angeles, California. Literary career While completing his AM degree at B ...

, '' I Am Not Sidney Poitier'' * Christopher Miller, ''The Cardboard Universe: A Guide to the World of Phoebus K. Dank'' *

Mary Robison Mary Cennamo Robison (born January 14, 1949 in Washington, D.C., United States) is an American short story writer and novelist. She has published four collections of stories, and four novels, including her 2001 novel ''Why Did I Ever'', winn ...

, ''One D.O.A., One on the Way'' *

Blake Butler John David Blake Butler (22 October 1924 – 15 April 1981) was an English actor best known for his role as the lecherous chief librarian Mr. Wainwright during the first and third series of ''Last of the Summer Wine'' in 1973 and 1976 res ...

, ''Scorch Atlas'' *

Padgett Powell Padgett Powell (born April 25, 1952 in Gainesville, Florida) is an American novelist in the Southern literary tradition. His debut novel, ''Edisto'' (1984), was nominated for the American Book Award and was excerpted in ''The New Yorker''. Po ...

, ''The Interrogative Mood''

2010

The shortlist was announced in March 2011. The winner was announced in May 2011. *

James Hynes James Hynes (born August 23, 1955) is an American novelist. Biography Hynes was born in Okemos, Michigan,''Contemporary Authors Online'', Thomson Gale, 2004. and grew up in Big Rapids, Michigan. He currently resides in Austin, Texas, where he ...

, ''

Next Next may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare * ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage * '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film Lit ...

'' *

Danielle Dutton Danielle Dutton (born October 18, 1975) is an American writer and publisher. Early life and education Dutton was born in Visalia, California, on October 18, 1975. She received her B.A. in history from the University of California, Santa Cruz in ...

, ''Sprawl'' * Kira Henehan, '' Orion You Came and You Took All My Marbles'' * Grace Krilanovich, ''The Orange Eats Creeps'' * Paul Murray, ''

Skippy Dies ''Skippy Dies'' is a 2010 tragicomic novel by Paul Murray. It was shortlisted for the 2010 Costa Book Awards, longlisted for the 2010 Booker Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Plot ''Skippy Dies'' follows th ...

2011

The shortlist was announced in March 2012. The winner was announced in May 2012. *

Ben Lerner Benjamin S. Lerner (born February 4, 1979) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and critic. He has been a Fulbright Scholar, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, a finalist for the National Book Award, a finalist for the National Bo ...

, ''

Leaving the Atocha Station ''Leaving the Atocha Station'' (2011) is the debut novel by American poet and critic Ben Lerner. It won the 2011 Believer Book Award. Story The first-person narrator of the novel, Adam Gordon, is an American poet in his early 20s participating ...

'' *

, ''The Curfew'' *

Helen DeWitt Helen DeWitt (born 1957 in Takoma Park, Maryland) is an American novelist. She is the author of the novels ''The Last Samurai'' (2000) and ''Lightning Rods'' (2011) and the short story collection ''Some Trick'' (2018) and, in collaboration with t ...

, ''Lightning Rods'' *

Lars Iyer Lars Iyer is a British novelist and philosopher of Indian/Danish parentage. He is best known for a trilogy of short novels: ''Spurious'' (2011), ''Dogma'' (2012), and ''Exodus'' (2013), all published by Melville House. Iyer has been shortlisted f ...

, ''Spurious'' *

Michelle Latiolais Michelle Latiolais (born 1956) is an American author and academic known for the novels ''She,'' ''A Proper Knowledge,'' and ''Even Now,'' which received the Gold Medal for Fiction from the Commonwealth Club of California. She is a professor of En ...

, ''Widow''

2012

The shortlist was announced in March 2013. The winner was announced in April 2013. * Tamara Faith Berger, ''Maidenhead'' * Barbara Browning, ''I'm Trying to Reach You'' *

Karl Ove Knausgaard Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austria ...

, ''My Struggle (Book One)'' *

, ''Parsifal'' *

Sergio De La Pava Sergio de la Pava (born 1970/71) is an American novelist and lawyer. He is best known for his novel '' A Naked Singularity''. Biography Sergio de la Pava was born and raised in New Jersey, to parents who immigrated from Colombia. He attended ...

, ''A Naked Singularity''

2013

The shortlist was announced in March 2014. The winner was announced in April 2014. * Rebecca Lee, ''Bobcat and Other Stories'' *

Kiese Laymon Kiese Laymon (born August 15, 1974, Jackson, Mississippi) is a Black southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi. He is a professor of English and Creative Writing at Rice University. He is the author of three full-length books: a novel, ''Long D ...

, ''Long Division'' *

Fiona Maazel Fiona Maazel (born 1975 in Cleveland, Ohio) is the author of three novels: ''Last Last Chance'', ''Woke Up Lonely'', and ''A Little More Human''. In 2008 she was named a 5 under 35 honoree by the National Book Foundation. In 2017, she was awarde ...

, ''Woke Up Lonely'' *

Keith Ridgway Keith Ridgway (born 2 October 1965) is an Irish novelist. An author, he has been described as "a worthy inheritor" of "the modernist tradition in Irish fiction." Writings ''Horses'', Ridgway's first published work of fiction, appeared in ''Faber ...

, ''Hawthorn and Child'' * Bennett Sims, ''A Questionable Shape''

2014

The shortlist was announced in March 2015. The winner was announced in the Fall 2015 issue. *

Ottessa Moshfegh Ottessa Charlotte Moshfegh (; born May 20, 1981) is an American author and novelist. Her debut novel, ''Eileen'' (2015), won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and was a fiction finalist for the National Boo ...

, ''McGlue'' * Diane Cook, ''Man V. Nature'' *

Valeria Luiselli Valeria Luiselli (born August 16, 1983) is a Mexican author living in the United States. She is the author of the book of essays ''Sidewalks'' and the novel '' Faces in the Crowd'', which won the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First F ...

, ''Faces in the Crowd'' *

Elizabeth McCracken Elizabeth McCracken (born 1966) is an American author. She is a recipient of the PEN New England Award. Life and career McCracken, a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, graduated from Newton North High ...

, ''Thunderstruck and Other Stories'' * Antoine Volodine, ''Writers''

2017

The shortlist was announced in March 2018. The winner was announced in June 2018. *

Matthew Rohrer Matthew Rohrer (born 1970) is an American poet. Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Rohrer was raised in Oklahoma. He earned a BA from the University of Michigan (where he won a Hopwood Award for poetry) and a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry f ...

, ''The Others'' *

Andrew Durbin Andrew Durbin is an American poet, novelist, and editor. As of 2019, he has served as editor-in-chief of Frieze magazine. Prior to his position at Frieze, he co-founded Company Gallery, served as the Talks Curator at the Poetry Project, and serve ...

, ''MacArthur Park'' * Deepak Unnikrishnan, ''Temporary People'' * Jenny Zhang, ''Sour Heart'' * Leyna Krow, ''I’m Fine, But You Appear to Be Sinking''

2018

The longlist was announced in January 2019. The shortlist and winner was announced in April 2019. * Rita Bullwinkel, ''Belly Up'' *

Mathias Énard Mathias Énard (born 1972) is a French novelist. He studied Persian and Arabic and spent long periods in the Middle East. He has lived in Barcelona for about fifteen years, interrupted in 2013 by a writing residency in Berlin. He won several awa ...

, ''Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants'' * Ben Passmore, ''Your Black Friend and Other Strangers'' *

Shelley Jackson Shelley Jackson (born 1963) is an American writer and artist known for her cross-genre experimental works. These include her hyperfiction ''Patchwork Girl'' (1995) and her first novel, ''Half Life'' (2006). Biography In her own words: "Shelley ...

, ''Riddance; Or: The Sybil Joines Vocational School for Ghost Speakers & Hearing-Mouth Children'' *

Hideo Yokoyama is a Japanese novelist. Yokoyama specializes in mystery novels. He repeated his Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! No. 1 ranking in 2013 with '' Six Four'' (64). The English edition of ''Six Four'', translated by Jonathan Lloyd-Davies, was shortlisted ...

, translated by Louise Heal Kawai, ''Seventeen''

2019

The longlist was announced on January 15 2020. The shortlist and winner was announced in March 2020. ''Fiction'' *

Ebony Flowers Ebony Victoria Flowers is an American prose writer and cartoonist who lives in Denver. Flowers authored the graphic novel, ''Hot Comb,'' which contains several short story comics that are a mix of autobiographical and fiction. She has been publish ...

, ''Hot Comb'' * Sarah Rose Etter, ''The Book of X'' * Adam Ehrlich Sachs, ''The Organs of Sense'' * Donatella Di Pietrantonio, translated by Ann Goldstein, ''A Girl Returned'' *

Hebe Uhart Hebe Uhart (2 December 1936 – 11 October 2018) was an Argentine writer. In 2017, she received the Manuel Rojas Ibero-American Narrative Award. Career Of her childhood and relationship with books, Hebe Uhart relates: She studied Philosophy at ...

, translated by Maureen Shaughnessy, ''The Scent of Buenos Aires'' ''Nonfiction'' * Trisha Low, ''Socialist Realism'' (Coffee House Press) * Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, translated by Janet Hong, ''Grass'' (Drawn & Quarterly) * Andrea Long Chu, ''Females'' (Verso Books) * Emmanuel Carrère, translated by John Lambert, ''97,196 Words'' (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) * Heather Christle, ''The Crying Book'' (Catapult Books) ''Poetry'' * Deborah Landau, ''Soft Targets'' (Copper Canyon Press) * Cameron Awkward-Rich, ''Dispatch'' (Persea Books) * Christopher Kondrich, ''Valuing'' (University of Georgia Press) * Steve Healey, ''Safe Houses I Have Known'' (Coffee House Press) * Franny Choi, ''Soft Science'' (Alice James Books)

2020

The longlist was announced on January 15, 2021. The shortlist and winners were announced May 18, 2021. ''Fiction'' *

Vigdis Hjorth Vigdis Hjorth (born 19 July 1959) is a Norwegian novelist. She was long listed for the National Book Award for Translated Literature, National book Award. Life She grew up in Oslo, and studied philosophy, literature and political science. I ...

, translated by Charlotte Barslund, ''Long Live the Post Horn!'' (Verso Books) * What Happens at Night by Peter Cameron * The White Dress by Nathalie Léger (translated by Natasha Lehrer) * Lisa Robertson, ''The Baudelaire Fractal'' * Souvankham Thammavongsa, ''How to Pronounce Knife'' ''Nonfiction'' * Ashon T. Crawley, ''The Lonely Letters'' (Duke University Press) * Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn, ''A Fish Growing Lungs'' * Emerson Whitney, ''Heaven'' * Emily J. Lordi, ''The Meaning of Soul: Black Music and Resilience since the 1960s'' *

Namwali Serpell Carla Namwali Serpell (born 1980) is an American and Zambian writer who teaches in the United States. In April 2014, she was named on Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with the potential and talent to de ...

, ''Stranger Faces'' ''Poetry'' *

Yona Harvey Yona Harvey (born 1974) is an American poet and assistant professor at University of Pittsburgh. She won the 2014 Kate Tufts Discovery Award. She is also an author of Marvel Comics' ''World of Wakanda'', becoming one of the first two black women ...

, ''You Don’t Have to Go to Mars For Love'' (Four Way Books) * John Murillo, ''Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry'' * Noah Falck, ''Exclusions'' * Candice Wuehle, ''Death Industrial Complex'' * Tess Taylor, ''Rift Zone'' ''Graphic Narrative'' * Jonathan Hill, ''Odessa'' (Oni Press) * Danny Noble, ''Shame Pudding: A Graphic Memoir'' * Vivian Chong and Georgia Webber, ''Dancing after TEN'' * Lawrence Lindell, ''From Truth with Truth'' *

Gipi Gianni Pacinotti, better known by the pseudonym of Gipi, is an Italian cartoonist, filmmaker, and author. Biography Born in Pisa in 1963, he began his career illustrating for the publishing and advertising industries. He began illustrating stor ...

, translated by Jaime Richards, ''One Story''

References

External links

Believer Book Award
at

LibraryThing LibraryThing is a social cataloging web application for storing and sharing book catalogs and various types of book metadata. It is used by authors, individuals, libraries, and publishers. Based in Portland, Maine, LibraryThing was developed by ...

{{McSweeney's , state=autocollapse Awards established in 2005 Short story awards American fiction awards Awards by magazines The Believer (magazine)

Winners and shortlist

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2017

2018

2019

2020

See also

References

External links