top of page

The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

  • Mar 14
  • 1 min read

  • Deadline: March 14, 2025 (Check back on February 15th for updates)

  • Entry Fee: $100 (Fee reduction available for small independent publishers)

  • Cash Prize: $15,000

  • Email: info@centerforfiction.org

  • Website: centerforfiction.org


A $15,000 prize is awarded annually to a debut novel by an American citizen published in the United States during the current year. Six finalists each receive $1,000. Self-published books, e-book-only editions, and novels previously published in other countries are ineligible. Publishers may submit 10 finished copies, bound galleys, or edited manuscripts of a novel published or set to be published in 2025, along with a $100 entry fee, by March 14, 2025.


The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize 15 Lafayette Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11217 (212) 755-6710

Recent Posts

See All
Writers Deserve Standardized Rules

Fewer than 2 percent of queried manuscripts receive an offer of literary representation, largely because writers are expected to follow unwritten, inconsistent querying rules that no single authoritat

 
 
 
The Writing Workshop as an Institution

Granting graduate credit for fiction and poetry in 1936, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop challenged a university system built on philology, criticism, and the belief that “genius” could not be taught.

 
 
 
How Agents Work

Agents reject well over 95 percent of submissions not because of prose quality, but because the project does not align with current market risk, list positioning, or subrights potential that determine

 
 
 

Comments

FOR THE WRITERS® AND ITS AFFILIATED MARKS ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS. © 2019–2025 FOR THE WRITERS.

bottom of page