The JCO Prize in Year Ten:

An Allegory of America

In celebration of NewLit’s tenth anniversary of driving social change and unleashing artistic power, we award two Joyce Carol Oates Prizes to: Jennine Capó Crucet, of Greensboro, North Carolina, and Willy Vlautin, of Scappoose, Oregon. Each receives a $50,000 prize.

Since 2017, NewLit annually honors authors of national consequence who speak to and for free speech, arts education, students, teachers, and democracy. These are mid-career writers who have published at least two notable books of fiction, short stories and/or novels, writers who have emerged and are still emerging, writers who will eloquently advance the mission and represent the vision of not-for-profit New Literary Project.

Jennine and Willy represent the resilience, power, and diversity of our national communities, and both unforgettably dramatize the urgent issues of today. Together they are, in the words of Joyce Carol Oates, “an allegory of America.”

2025 JCO Prize Winners & Most Recent Book Publication

Jennine Capó Crucet, Say Hello to My Little Friend, Simon & Schuster

Willy Vlautin, The Horse, Harper

NewLit also honors the distinguished 2025 finalists:

Sarah Manguso, California, Liars (Hogarth)

 Julia Phillips, New York, Bear (Hogarth)

 Morgan Talty, Maine, Fire Exit (Tin House)

The JCO is a working prize, and we will be announcing in due course events around Jennine and Willy’s residency in Fall 2025 taking place at the University of California, Berkeley, Saint Mary’s College of California, and the Bay Area.

With the addition of these two 2025 JCO Prize winners, for our tenth anniversary, the number of Joyce Carol Oates Prize Recipients rises to ten. Previous winners include:

Ben Fountain (2024)

Manuel Muñoz (2023)

Lauren Groff (2022)

Danielle Evans (2021)

Daniel Mason (2020)

Laila Lalami (2019)

Anthony Marra (2018)

T. Geronimo Johnson (2017)

We’re standing up for free speech, for the freedom to read and learn and teach, and for arts education in our dangerously imperiled democracy.

Join us.

Based in Oakland, CA, NewLit is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit created in 2015 to inspire and equip writers across the generations—in the words of Joyce Carol Oates—to “write their hearts out.” Through a variety of innovative initiatives–and generously supported by individual donors, foundations, and altruistic corporate and community leaders–the organization drives social change and unleashes artistic power. It does so through fostering arts education, nurturing new literature, supporting authors, and enhancing the lives of readers, writers, educators, and high school and college students in neglected, undervalued, overlooked communities throughout California and the nation.

New Literary Project is grateful for generous institutional support from philanthropic and corporate sponsors who, along with our many loyal individual donors, drive social change and make possible serving students, teachers, and writers across generations: Wood Family Foundation, Simpson PSB Fund, System Property, Literary Arts Emergency Fund through the Mellon Foundation, Rare Bird Books, Penguin Random House, Salesforce Foundation, Busby Communications, and the Miner Anderson Family Foundation.