Joseph Earl Thomas Wins the 2024 First Novel Prize for God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer
Congratulations to our 2024 First Novel Prize winner, Joseph Earl Thomas, author of God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer (Hachette Book Group / Grand Central Publishing)! The award was announced at The Center for Fiction Annual Awards Benefit on December 10, 2024 at Cipriani 25 Broadway. Author Raven Leilani, winner of the 2020 First Novel Prize for Luster, presented Thomas with the award, which carries with it a prize of $15,000.
God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer was selected by a panel of distinguished American writers—Merve Emre, Raven Leilani, Jonathan Lethem, and Tyriek White. The shortlist also included Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel (Penguin Random House / Viking), The Fertile Earth by Ruthvika Rao (Macmillan / Flatiron Books), They Dream in Gold by Mai Sennaar (Zando / SJP Lit), Ask Me Again by Clare Sestanovich (Penguin Random House / Alfred A. Knopf), Fire Exit by Morgan Talty (Tin House), and Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga (Tin House). The shortlisted authors each received $1,000.
The evening’s honorees included author Patrick Chamoiseau, who received The Center for Fiction Lifetime of Excellence in Fiction Award, introduced by author Daniel Alarcón. Kathryn Belden, Vice President and Editorial Director of Scribner, received the Medal for Editorial Excellence, introduced by author Jesmyn Ward.
We also recognized author Peter Brown, film producer Jeff Hermann, and DreamWorks Animation (Universal) with the On Screen Award for The Wild Robot, adapted from Brown’s 2016 novel published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (Hachette). The evening was emceed by longtime arts leader Lisa Lucas.
The Annual Awards Benefit raises critical funds for our work providing access to books, supporting emerging writers, introducing children to contemporary books and authors through our KidsRead program, and nurturing diverse readers of all ages through our educational and public programs. This year, we raised over $700,000. We are so grateful to everyone who made this such an incredible evening and helped us to enrich the literary community of New York City and beyond for another year. We invite you to join us in creating a vibrant future for fiction by making a gift to The Center this winter.
2024 First Novel Prize
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God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer
By Joseph Earl Thomas
Published by Hachette Book Group / Grand Central Publishing
After a deployment in the Iraq War dually defined by threat and interminable mundanity, Joseph Thomas is fighting to find his footing. Now a doctoral student at The University, and an EMS worker at the hospital in North Philly, he encounters round the clock friends and family from his past life and would-be future at his job, including contemporaries of his estranged father, a man he knows little about, serving time at Holmesburg prison for the statutory rape of his then-teenage mother. Meanwhile, he and his best friend Ray, a fellow vet, are alternatingly bonding over and struggling with their shared experience and return to civilian life, locked in their own rhythms of lust, heartbreak, and responsibility.
Balancing the joys and frustrations of single fatherhood, his studies, and ceaseless shifts at the hospital as he becomes closer than he ever imagined to his father, Joseph tries to articulate vernacular understandings of the sociopolitical struggles he recounts as participant-observer at home, against the assumptions of his friends and colleagues. God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer is a powerful examination of every day black life—of health and sex, race and punishment, and the gaps between our desires and our politics.
About Joseph Earl Thomas
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Joseph Earl Thomas
Joseph Earl Thomas
Joseph Earl Thomas is the author of Sink, a memoir, the novel God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, and the short-story collection Leviathan Beach. His writing has been published in the Kenyon Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Dilettante Army, the Paris Review, and elsewhere.
Photo Credit: Marcus Jackson