Tiananmen Square by Lai Wen has been longlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award 2025.
Lucy Popescu (chair of the judging panel) commented: ‘We are delighted to announce our longlist of twelve brilliant debuts. The novels cover complex family dynamics, state repression, slavery, identity, prejudice and survival, ADHD, masculinity, loss and bereavement. These diverse and compelling narratives are utterly original and written with real flair and compassion.’
The prize is open to any debut novel written in English and published in the UK between 1 Jan and 31 Dec 2024. The prize of £2500 exists to support UK-based authors, publishers and agents, so the novel must originate in the UK and not have been published anywhere else in the world before its UK publication. Inaugurated in 1954, the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award is now in its 71st year, making it the longest-running UK prize for debut fiction and – except for the James Tait Black and the Hawthornden – the oldest literary prize in Britain.
The shortlist is announced on Monday 24 March and the winner will be announced on Wednesday 21 May.