The VCU Cabell First Novelist Award Committee has just unveiled the short list of the 20 top books submitted for this year's contest.

This list was determined by reviews from current students in VCU's MFA in Creative Writing Program and community readers. Community readers included books clubs, writing groups, booksellers, librarians, professors, English majors, MA students and others located in and around Richmond.

2021 Short List

Black Sunday, Tola Rotimi Abraham (Catapult)

You Exist Too Much, Zaina Arafat (Catapult)

Don't You Know I Love You, Laura Bogart (Dzanc)

Indelicacy, Amina Cain (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Days of Distraction, Alexandra Chang (Ecco)

Bestiary, K-Ming Chang (One World)

The Likely World, Melanie Conroy-Goldman (Red Hen)

The Lost Shtetl, Max Gross (HarperCollins)

Luster, Raven Leilani (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

The Seventh Mansion, Maryse Meijer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

My Dark Vanessa, Kate Elizabeth Russell (HarperCollins)

A Certain Hunger, Chelsea G. Summers (Unnamed Press)

Real Life, Brandon G. Taylor (Riverhead)

Creatures, Crissy Van Meter (Algonquin)

Memorial, Bryan Washington (Riverhead)

Winter Counts, David Heska Wanbli Weiden (HarperCollins)

Valentine, Elizabeth Wetmore (HarperCollins)

Subduction, Kristen Millares Young (Red Hen)

How Much of These Hills Is Gold, C. Pam Zhang (Riverhead)

The All-Night Sun, Diane Zinna (Random House)

The next step will be to whittle this list down to a short list of 10. Stay tuned for more.