Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction by Emerging Writers
The application for the 2010 Samuel Goldberg & Sons Prize for Jewish Fiction by Emerging Writers is now open! We will accept submissions until March 1st, 2010. See below for details.
Congratulations to our latest winner, Irina Reyn, for her 2008 book, What Happened to Anna K. (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster)!
Irina is the editor of Living on the Edge of the World: New Jersey Writers Take on the Garden State (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster). Her work has appeared in One Story, Post Road, Tin House, Los Angeles Times, Town & Country Travel, The Forward, Nextbook, Ballyhoo Stories, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Moscow Times. Irina was born in Moscow and currently divides her time between Pittsburgh, PA and Brooklyn, NY. She is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh.
Overview
Established in 1999 and supported through a generous grant from the Samuel Goldberg & Sons Foundation, the Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction by Emerging Writers is among the very first of its kind to highlight new works by contemporary writers exploring Jewish themes.
The prize spotlights promising new talent, and is awarded to an American fiction writer for a first or second full-length work that was published in the previous calendar year. Submissions must be made by the publisher.
The award includes a prize of $2,500, as well as a one-week residency at Ledig House International Writers Colony in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Eligibility
Applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States. International students cannot be granted fellowships at this time. Previous grantees of the Goldberg Prize may not reapply.
Applications must be submitted directly by publishers. We cannot accept submissions from individual authors.
Guidelines and Application
Grants are awarded on a competitive basis and are recommended by a panel of writers, publishers and other literary professionals.
Click here to download this year's application.
Deadline
The deadline for applying to the 2010 prize is Monday, March 1st, 2010.
Previous Panelists
The panelists for 2009 included:
- Carolyn Hessel,
Executive Director of the Jewish Book Council
- Dan Friedman, Arts & Culture Editor of the Forward
- Anya Ulinich, "5 Under 25" honoree and 2008 Goldberg Prize winner for Petropolis
Previous Grantees
The 2008 prize was awarded to Anya Ulinich for her debut novel Petropolis. Ulinich was also chosen by the National Book Award foundation as a "5 Under 35" awardee. The book is about Sasha Goldberg, a biracial, Jewish, socially maladjusted "child of the intelligentsia" from the Siberian town Asbestos 2. When following her heart gets her into trouble at home, Sasha leaves Russia as a mail-order bride and, with the help of the Kupid's Korner Agency, lands in suburban Arizona. Soon, she escapes her fiance and embarks on a misadventure-filled journey across America in search of her father.
The 2007 prize was awarded to Scott Nadelson for his story collection The Cantor’s Daughter (Hawthorne Books, June 2006). The book captures Jewish New Jersey suburbanites in moments of crucial transition, when they have the opportunity to connect with those closest to them or forever miss their chance for true intimacy. Nadelson’s stories are sympathetic, heartbreaking, and funny as they investigate the characters’ fragile emotional bonds and the fears that often cause those bonds to falter or fail.
For a complete list of past grantees and their books, click here.
For further information about this prize, please contact Paul Zakrzewski, program officer for literature and scholarship, at pzak@jewishculture.org.
Program Funder
The Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction by Emerging Writers is made possible through a generous endowment and annual support of the Samuel Goldberg & Sons Foundation, Inc.