Isabella Hammad speaks on April 25 at the Morgan Library Aspen Words Literary Prize ceremony in which she won the 2024 award. Image: Aspen Words Literary Prize, Richard Jopson
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘Resilience and the Quest for Belonging’
Overnight in New York City (April 25), author Isabella Hammad has accepted the US$35,000 Aspen Words Literary Prize.
As Publishing Perspectives readers know, among the myriad awards programs in book publishing, the Aspen prize is distinguished by the fact that it’s specifically designed to recognize “an influential work of fiction that illuminates a vital contemporary issue and demonstrates the transformative power of literature on thought and culture.”
Isabella Hammad has won this year’s edition of this still-young award—she is the seventh winner—for Enter Ghost, a tale of Palestinian diaspora published by Grove Atlantic in April 2023.
In its rationale, the jury for the Aspen Prize writes, “In elegant, nuanced prose, Isabella Hammad tells the story of Sonia Nasir, a stage actress living in London who returns to her homeland of Palestine to visit her sister, Haneen, after many years away, and finds herself roped into a production of Hamlet in the West Bank.
“Exploring themes of diaspora, displacement and the search for identity, Hammad constructs a world rich in texture and emotion.
“A poignant narrative of resilience and the quest for belonging, Enter Ghost is a dazzling story of self-discovery against the backdrop of displacement.
As is the tradition in the Aspen program’s award ceremony at the Morgan Library, Mary Louise Kelly, who is a host with NPR’s All Things Considered, moderated an onstage conversation with the shortlist of five writers (see below).
Hammad’s second book follows her 2019 The Parisian, also from Grove Atlantic, which won a Palestinian Book Award, the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Betty Trask Award from the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom.
Reviewing the Aspen Words Literary Prize 2024 Shortlist
This year’s jury comprises:
- Lan Samantha Chang
- Christina Baker Kline
- Anthony Marra
- Chinelo Okparanta
- Simran Jeet Singh
| Author | Title | Publisher, Imprint |
| Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah | Chain-Gang All-Stars | Penguin Random House / Pantheon |
| Aaliyah Bilal | Temple Folk | Simon & Schuster |
| Jamel Brinkley | Witness | Macmillan / FSG |
| Isabella Hammad | Enter Ghost | Grove Atlantic / Grove Press |
| James McBride | The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store | Penguin Random House / Riverhead |
Previous Winners of the Aspen Words Literary Prize
The inaugural Aspen Words Literary Prize was presented to Mohsin Hamid in 2018 for Exit West.
Subsequent honors have gone to:
- Tayari Jones in 2019 for An American Marriage, her novel about racism and unjust incarceration
- Christy Lefteri in 2020 prize for The Beekeeper of Aleppo, about Syrian refugees
- Louise Erdrich in 2021 award for The Night Watchman, about Native American dispossession
- Dawnie Walton in 2022 for The Final Revival of Opal and Nev, which explores identity, place, and the influence of pop culture
- Jamil Jan Kochai in 2023 for The Haunting of Hajji Hotak
Below, a recording of the program at the Morgan Library in New York City:
More from us on the Aspen Words Literary Prize is here, more on the American book business is here. More from Publishing Perspectives on international book and publishing awards programs is here.