The Brooklyn Public Library has unveiled the longlists for its book prizes, given annually to “outstanding works of nonfiction and fiction” that capture “the spirit of Brooklyn, one of the most socially and culturally diverse communities in the country.”
Nicholas Boggs made the nonfiction longlist for his biography Baldwin: A Love Story (a Kirkus Prize finalist); as did Bench Ansfield for Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City; Cristina Jiménez for Dreaming of Home: How We Turn Fear Into Pride, Power, and Real Change; Martín Espada for Jailbreak of Sparrows: Poems; and Mohammed El-Kurd for Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal.
Also nominated for the nonfiction prize were Sarah Aziza for The Hollow Half: A Memoir of Bodies and Borders; Stacy Horn for The Killing Fields of East New York: The First Subprime Mortgage Scandal, a White-Collar Crime Spree, and the Collapse of an American Neighborhood; Brian Goldstone for There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America; Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian for Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature; and Lindsey Stewart for The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women’s Magic.
For the fiction award, the longlisted authors include Stephen Graham Jones for The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Robin Coste Lewis for Archive of Desire: A Poem in Four Parts for C. P. Cavafy, Zoe Dubno for Happiness & Love, Stephanie Wambugu for Lonely Crowds, and Honor Jones for Sleep.
Also making the fiction longlist were Emily Hunt Kivel for Dwelling, Jesse Lonergan for Drome, Andrew Joseph White for You Weren’t Meant To Be Human, Kate Folk for Sky Daddy, and Gish Jen for Bad Bad Girl.
The Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize, which is selected by library employees, was established in 2015. Previous winners include Idra Novey for Ways To Disappear, Miriam Toews for Women Talking, and Ocean Vuong for On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous.
The shortlists and winners of the awards will be announced later this year.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
