Using Awards List As a RA Tool: The Joyce Carol Oates Prize Edition

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.

I love awards that are both general and specific. I know that sounds impossible but hear me out. The Shirley Jackson Award (for which I serve on the Advisory Board) is exactly this, but so is today's example--  The Joyce Carol Oates Prize:

The Joyce Carol Oates Prize is named in honor of the preeminent author, and our colleague. In the past, Joyce served as Simpson Project Writer-in-Residence, and today she sits on the New Literary Project Board of Directors as an honorary member. NewLit gratefully acknowledges her inspiring, lifelong impact as peerless teacher and writer, an author beloved and admired by legions of students, writers, and readers around the country and the world. She embodies the Project’s most deeply held commitments to literature and literacy, arts and education, in order to enhance the lives of students, readers, and writers across generations and diverse communities.

The Joyce Carol Oates Prize annually honors a mid-career fiction writer whose work speaks to the mission and vision of New Literary Project. This prize is awarded not in recognition of a book, but for an author: an already emerged and still emerging author of national consequence—short stories and/or novels—at the relatively middle stage of a burgeoning career. By mid-career we mean an author who has published at least two notable books of fiction, and who has yet to receive capstone recognition such as a Pulitzer or a MacArthur. Otherwise, there are no age, geographic, or stylistic restrictions. The winner receives a $50,000 award to encourage and support forthcoming work. The Prize is a working prize, in the sense that each year the winner is in brief fall residence (seven to ten days) at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Bay Area, where they may give public readings and talks, teach classes, and make appearances.

An application process is announced in the fall of every year, after which a distinguished jury considers an assembled longlist. Eventually, jurors hand up the names of finalists to the New Literary Project Board, which ultimately decides upon the Prize.

I bolded the proof of my comments above, but to be clear here-- this award is "general" in that if is for any author from anywhere, at any age, and not a particular book but it is "specific" in the parameter-- it is an author they define as "emerging" and that has very specific parameters (listed above). 

As an award for those of us in the library both the current JCO nominees AND the past winners and nominees are an amazing resource for displays, collection development, and suggestions (see the link in the header of this post for more details).

First, take a look at this year's longlist here. There are 28(!) authors you know, whose books you have, and they are probably languishing on the shelf, just waiting to be matched with their best reader. I love how many nominees we get with this award

Second move to the current finalists:

Katie Kitamura, Audition (Riverhead Books)

Erika Krouse, Save Me, Stranger (Flatiron Books)

Lori Ostlund, Are You Happy? (Astra House)

Jamie Quatro, Two-Step Devil (Grove Atlantic)

Danzy Senna, Colored Television (Riverhead Books)

These are well known, but not super famous names. Just like the award notes. These are books you almost certainly own. Go out right now and check these 5 authors to make sure you have their titles and if you have time-- go check all 28 on the longlist as well.

Which leads to, fourth, the past winners are HUGE names now. The JCO Prize identifies authors who mainstream audiences would love if they only they had a chance to shine admit the thousands of books published each year. Just look at this list:

2026 Prize Winner Erika Krouse
2025 Prize Winner Jennine Capó Crucet
2025 Prize Winner Willy Vlautin
2024 Prize Winner Ben Fountain
2023 Prize Winner Manuel Muñoz
2022 Prize Winner Lauren Groff
2021 Prize Winner Danielle Evans
2020 Prize Winner Daniel Mason
2019 Prize Winner Laila Lalami
2018 Prize Winner Anthony Marra
2017 Prize Winner T. Geronimo Johnson

Every. Single. Author. They are names you know, your patrons ask for, and you pre-order without a second thought. Would they be as well known without the JCO Prize. Probably not. More on the backlist below but first one last point.

Fifth, look at all the lists mentioned above. Note how there or no "genre" guardrails on this award. Again, this is part of the "general" nature of this award. These authors are exploring many genres with their works and I love to see it. 

Finally, as promised, let's take a deeper look at the backlist of anyone who has ever been on one of the JCO Prize longlists, let alone won. Click here to get ALL of that info with a single click. The backlist here is easy to access. On the main page for the JCO Prize, they have the current year and at the end of that entry for whatever year there are clear buttons to peruse the Longlist and Shortlists for that year.

But the backlist for this prize is even more helpful than your average backlist access (as I referred to above) because of the fact that this list goes out of its way to award those who are emerging, who have NOT been singled out for an award. Therefore, it is by default, diverse. The number of well reviewed, nominated for prizes, critically acclaimed but not winners, midlist authors who are from historically marginalized communities is huge. 

The JCO Prize-- winners, finalist, and longlist-- is a great resource to find a diverse list of authors who you and your readers might not be as aware of, but they are all writers whose work is perfect for a public library collection, and books you almost certainly have.

They are also books that despite being awesome reads, may have gotten lost in the shuffle. Don't just shrug about it. Do something to highlight them. Turn the last few years of longlist authors (there are repeats) into a display. Call it something like "Great Reads You Don't Know About....Yet." This display idea follows my #1 rule about displays-- Promote Books Patrons Will Not Find Without Your Help. This is where we show our worth and make the biggest impression on our readers. 

And then if you are willing to take another step toward better RA Service, use that title to ask your patrons to share their suggestions for great reads more people need to know about. The display will become ever more diverse. It will move itself away from the award you are using to start it (again, you never have to mention the award as your resource, just use the results), while also turning it into a locally specific resource. Click here for more by me about how to turn a conversation starter into a display.

In general though, The JCO Prize-- winners, finalist, and longlist-- is a great resource for everything I say about Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool. You know about the prize and can use it to make displays without ever referring to the prize itself. And it is evergreen because it is so broad. 

Please expand your display idea horizons and (except for heritage months) don't tie yourself to only being able to put up "timely" displays. Evergreen displays are ALWAYS more useful-- to you because you can have them ready at anytime and recycle ideas-- and to your patrons because they are going to be more bored in scope, offering options for more readers.