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The Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize is an annual award presented by the New Literary Project to recognize mid-career writers of fiction.^[1]^[2] "Mid-career writer" is defined by the project as "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."^[3] The prize, which carries a monetary award of $50,000, was established in 2017 and is administered by the New Literary Project, a collaboration of the Lafayette Library and Learning Center Foundation of Lafayette, California and the Department of English of the University of California, Berkeley.^[4]

Each year the longlist of finalists for the prize – who are selected by publishers, agents, authors, and author representatives – is announced in the fall of the year before, and the shortlist in early spring of the presenting year. The winner of the award is then announced in late spring. The winner gives reading in the San Francisco Bay area and receives a two-week residency in Lafayette and Berkeley. Shortlisted finalists receive $2,000.^[4]

The prize is named after author Joyce Carol Oates,^[3] and has been referred to as the Simpson Family Literary Prize and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. Joyce Carol Oates is an honorary member of the project's board of directors, and has served several times as their artist-in-residence.^[1] The choice of a prize for a mid-career writer was a considered one. Joseph Di Prisco, the project's founding chairman says "There are too damn many 'emerging writer' prizes — what about emerged writers? ... Ninety-five percent of publishers’ catalogs are made up of writers in the middle of their careers, but unless you're J. K. Rowling or Stephen King, you're not on the best-seller lists. You need support."^[1]

The New Literary Project was founded in 2015 by the Lafayette Library, the UC Berkeley English Department, and the Contra Costa County Library.^[4] Its purpose is to foster fiction writing through educational outreach in schools and universities, and to celebrate and support authors.^[5]

Recipients

Prize winners and finalists
Year	Author	Title	Result	Ref.
2017	T. Geronimo Johnson	Welcome to Braggsville	Winner	^[6]
2018	Anthony Marra	The Tsar of Love and Techno	Winner	^[6]
	Ben Fountain	Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk	Finalist	^[7]
	Samantha Hunt	The Dark Dark
	Karan Mahajan	The Association of Small Bombs
	Martin Pousson	Black Sheep Boy: A Novel in Stories
2019	Laila Lalami	The Moor's Account	Winner	^[6]
	Rachel Kushner	The Mars Room	Finalist	^[8]
	Valeria Luiselli	Lost Children Archive
	Sigrid Nunez	The Friend
	Anne Raeff	Winter Kept Us Warm: A Novel
	Amor Towles	A Gentleman in Moscow
2020	Daniel Mason	The Winter Soldier	Winner	^[1]^[9]
	Chris Bachelder	The Throwback Special	Finalist	^[10]^[11]
	Maria Dahvana Headley	The Mere Wife
	Rebecca Makkai	The Great Believers
	Peter Orner	Maggie Brown & Others
	Dexter Palmer	Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen
	Kevin Wilson	Nothing to See Here
2021	Danielle Valore Evans	The Office of Historical Corrections	Winner	^[12]
	Jenny Offill	Weather	Finalist	^[13]^[14]
	Darin Strauss	The Queen of Tuesday
	Lysley Tenorio	The Son of Good Fortune
2022	Lauren Groff	Matrix	Winner	^[15]^[16]
	Christopher Beha	The Index of Self-Destructive Acts	Finalist	^[17]^[18]
	Percival Everett	The Trees
	Katie Kitamura	Intimacies
	Jason Mott	Hell of a Book
2023	Manuel Muñoz	The Consequences	Winner	^[19]
	Rabih Alameddine	The Wrong End of the Telescope	Finalist	^[20]
	Clare Beams	The Illness Lesson
	James Hannaham	Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta
	David Means	Two Nurses, Smoking
2024	Ben Fountain	Devil Makes Three	Winner	^[6]^[21]
	Jamel Brinkley	Witness	Finalist	^[22]^[23]
	Patricia Engel	The Faraway World
	Idra Novey	Take What You Need
	Bennett Sims	Other Minds and Other Stories