New Year, New Prize News

January 9, 2025

An announcement is nigh! The judges are still deliberating, but on Wednesday, January 15, we’ll be revealing the ten titles they’ll be including on the longlist for the 2024 Republic of Consciousness Prize. Watch our social media feeds to stay updated. We’ve recently joined Bluesky and will be debuting soon on Instagram.

All the longlisted publishers, authors, translators, and their books will be celebrated on Wednesday, February 19 at 8:00 p.m. ET. You can tune into the online party via Zoom—it’s the hottest virtual ticket there is, at least as far as independent literature is concerned. Bookmark our link and tell your friends!

In the meantime, we have a couple more highlights from the judging room to tide you over until the big announcement.

Judge Rebekah Rine was taken with A Brutal Design by Zachary C. Solomon from Lanternfish Press:

Is Utopia possible, or will humanity’s trend toward brutalization always reveal itself? Zachary Solomon paints a picture of a utopian city designed as a refuge from the fascism taking over much of the world. A young architect enters this city full of optimism, then becomes increasingly disturbed by the secrets within. Filled with mystery, labyrinths, and alarming imagery, A Brutal Design is at once a warning, and an absurdly visceral novel.

Judge Luis Alberto Correa recommends Gifted by Suzumi Suzuki (tr. by Allison Markin Powell) from Transit Books:

A portrait of the complicated entanglements of care and its razor-thin relationship to cruelty. Amid Tokyo’s red-light district, between time spent with friends and fellow sex workers, a young woman looks after her ailing and abusive mother. Taut and intimate, this English language debut portends a writer with a keen eye on the often invisible corners of labor and memory with a beautifully lucid voice, made evident here by Allison Markin Powell’s translation.

Remember that this is a mere sampling of the scores of titles we’re evaluating, and it isn’t intended as any sort of preview of our eventual longlist.

Please share this email with other interested readers to help spread the word about the remarkable work being produced by North American small presses!