Iranian American writer Kaveh Akbar is a recipient of multiple Pushcart Prizes and the author of two acclaimed poetry collections including Calling a Wolf a Wolf (2017) and Pilgrim Bell (2021). In 2016, he published the chapbook Portrait of the Alcoholic about his ongoing struggles with addiction, a theme that he continued in his stellar first novel, Martyr!, published in 2024.
Cheyenne and Arapaho author Tommy Orange has been heralded for giving voice to Native Americans living in urban spaces. His astonishing 2018 debut novel, There There, won the National Book Critics Circle Award's John Leonard Prize for the first book by a new voice and the 2019 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. Orange’s much anticipated second novel is Wandering Star (2024).