Young Lions of The New York Public Library

Join actor, producer, and author Jay Ellis this Monday, July 29 at The New York Public Library for the first East Coast stop on his book tour! Attend Cocktails & Conversation with Jay as he discusses his new book, Did Everyone Have an Imaginary Friend (or Just Me)? a humorous collection of stories about coming of age alongside his imaginary best friend. Fiction Award attendees might recognize Jay as a reader at our 2024 Young Lions Fiction Award. We're excited to welcome him back to the Library for an evening of laughs, literature, and refreshments!

If you would like to attend please email [email protected]. RSVPs are required and names will be listed at the door.

Calling all publishers and young authors! We are excited to share that we are now accepting submissions for The New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award, to be awarded in June of 2025.

This award was created expressly to promote the work of young writers, to celebrate their accomplishments publicly, and to make a difference in their lives as they continue to build their careers. The award is given annually to an American writer age 35 or younger for a novel, graphic novel, or collection of short stories.

Submissions close on Friday, September 6 at 5 PM EDT.

Please see the link in our bio for more information on submissions and the award. Should you have any questions, please contact the Young Lions team at [email protected].

We are still walking on air from Thursday’s Young Lions Fiction Award ceremony! The evening would not have been possible without the talented actors who joined us to bring the works of each finalist to life. A special thank you to Jennifer Morrison who returned as our host for the evening! ♥️

Thank you to everyone who attended our twenty-fourth annual Young Lions Fiction Award last night! Its always a joy to be able to celebrate with our members and uplift young authors.

Congratulations to all of our talented finalists, especially our winner, E. J. Koh!

Almost show time!

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What’s your drink of choice? A Negroni… Sbagliato… with

Get your craft Negroni Sbagliato or French 75 from at the Young Lions Fiction Award this Thursday! We can’t wait to see you all there!

Last but certainly not least we want to highlight C Pam Zhang whose book Land of Milk and Honey is a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award.

C Pam Zhang is the author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold, winner of the Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Award and the Asian/Pacific Award for Literature, longlisted for the Booker Prize, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award and the National Book Critics’ John Leonard Prize, and one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of the year. She is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree and a New York Public Library Cullman Fellow.

About Land of Milk and Honey: A smog has spread. Food crops are rapidly disappearing. A chef escapes her dying career in a dreary city to take a job at a decadent mountaintop colony seemingly free of the world’s troubles. There, the sky is clear again. Rare ingredients abound. Her enigmatic employer and his visionary daughter have built a lush new life for the global elite, one that reawakens the chef to the pleasures of taste, touch, and her own body. In this atmosphere of hidden wonders and cool, seductive violence, the chef’s boundaries undergo a thrilling erosion. Soon she is pushed to the center of a startling attempt to reshape the world far beyond the plate.

Tickets are now available to purchase for the Young Lions Fiction Award after party! Guests and non-members are invited to attend the after party from 8-10pm in Astor Hall, beginning only one hour after the ceremony begins. Enjoy complimentary drinks and passed hors d'oeuvres while we dance the night away to music from a live DJ and celebrate the winner of our twenty-fourth Fiction Award!

Those already registered for the Young Lions Fiction Award have guaranteed access to the after party. If you are an active Young Lions member and would still like to RSVP for the ceremony please email [email protected].

Purchase after party tickets using the link in our bio and reach out to [email protected] if you have any questions! No limitations on quantity of tickets - bring all your friends!

Today we are giving our spotlight to Young Lions Fiction Award finalist, E. J. Koh for her book The Liberators!

E. J. Koh is the author of The Magical Language of Others, which won a Washington State Book Award, Pacific Northwest Book Award, and Association for Asian American Studies Book Award, and was longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award. Koh is also the author of the poetry collection A Lesser Love, a Pleiades Press Editors Prize for Poetry winner. Koh’s work has appeared in AGNI, the Atlantic, Boston Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Poetry, Slate, World Literature Today, and elsewhere. Koh earned her MFA at Columbia University and her PhD at the University of Washington, and has received National Endowment for the Arts and MacDowell fellowships. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

About The Liberators: Daejeon, South Korea. 1980. At twenty-four, Insuk falls in love with her college classmate, Sungho, and with her father’s blessing, they marry. But then, as the military dictatorship, martial law, and nationwide protests bring the country precariously to the edge, Insuk’s father disappears. In the wake of his disappearance, Insuk flees to California with Sungho, their son Henry, and Sungho’s overbearing mother. Adrift in a new country, Insuk grieves the loss of her past and divided homeland, only to find herself drawn into an illicit affair that sets into motion dramatic events that will echo for generations to come.

Eskor David Johnson is one of five finalists we are honoring June 13 at the Young Lions Fiction Award for his book Pay As You Go. Eskor is a writer from Trinidad and Tobago and the USA. He currently lives in New York City. Read on to learn about his humorous debut novel.

About Pay As You Go: New to town and delusionally confident, Slide imagined himself living in a glossy building with doormen and sweeping views of the skyline. Instead he’s landed in a creaking, stuffy apartment with two roommates: a loping giant who hardly leaves his room, and a weight-obsessed neurotic who keeps no fewer than forty-seven lamps throughout the house, blazing at all hours. Unwilling to accept this fate, Slide—a barber with an opaque past—embarks on a quest for the perfect apartment, pinballing through the sprawling, madcap city of Polis and its endless procession of neighborhoods. As he bounces from foldout couch to disaster-relief tent, falling in with some tough types, Slide begins to realize that he’s going to have to scratch and claw just to claim a place for himself in this world—let alone a place with in-unit laundry.

Check your inbox for our May newsletter to find exciting events happening at the Library! Not a subscriber? Head to the link in our bio to sign up.

Thanks to all of our Young Lions who joined us on Friday for a private opening night screening of WILDCAT! Afterwards, the Young Lions heard from co-writer and director Ethan Hawke during a special audience Q&A.

WILDCAT is now playing at the Angelika Film Center and AMC Lincoln Square.

To attend exclusive screenings like this one, join the today! (link in bio).

Our next finalist spotlight is Monica Brashears for House of Cotton!

Monica Brashears is an Affrilachian writer from Tennessee. She is a graduate of Syracuse University's MFA program. Her work has appeared in Nashville Review, Split Lip Magazine, Appalachian Review, The Masters Review, and more. House of Cotton is her first novel.

About House of Cotton: Magnolia Brown is nineteen years old, broke, and effectively an orphan. She feels stuck and haunted: by her overdrawn bank account, her predatory landlord, and the ghost of her late grandmother Mama Brown. One night, while working at her dead-end gas station job, a mysterious, slick stranger named Cotton walks in and offers to turn Magnolia’s luck around with a lucrative “modeling” job at his family’s funeral home. She accepts. But despite things looking up, Magnolia’s problems fatten along with her wallet. When Cotton’s requests become increasingly weird, Magnolia discovers there’s a lot more at stake than just her rent.

Attend the Young Lions Fiction Award June 13 to honor these talented, young authors and dance the night away! Secure tickets now using the link in our bio. Email [email protected] with any questions.

As we count down the weeks leading up to our twenty-fourth annual Young Lions Fiction Award we'd like to highlight the talented finalists and the books they are being honored for.

Up first we have Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah for Chain-Gang All-Stars!

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is the New York Times-bestselling author of Friday Black. His work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Esquire, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. He was a National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” honoree, the winner of the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the Saroyan Prize, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award for Best First Book, along with many other honors. Raised in Spring Valley, New York, he now lives in the Bronx.

His book, Chain-Gang All-Stars is set in a future version of America, where the only prison system is a private prison system, and the owners of those prisons have reinvigorated a gladiator system, called CAPE—the Criminal Action Penal Entertainment network. Within CAPE, incarcerated people travel the country participating in televised death matches in front of hungry crowds of fans. Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors, to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system’s unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.

We hope you'll join us to celebrate Nana and our other finalists this June! Check the link in our bio to purchase tickets or become a member. Email [email protected] if you have any questions.

We had a great time at the annual Library Lunch last week! Big shout out to our Young Lions on the Steering Committee - Erick Brocoy, Johanna and Benjamin Collins-Wood, Joelle El Sawalhi, and Tobili Ann Idiowa Hatcher - for their support leading up to this event.

After much anticipation we are excited to share our 2024 Young Lions Fiction Award finalists! Congratulations to Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah for Chain-Gang All-Stars; Monica Brashears for House of Cotton; Eskor David Johnson for Pay As You Go; E. J. Koh for The Liberators; and C Pam Zhang for Land of Milk and Honey.

Tickets for the Young Lions Fiction Award on Thursday, June 13 are available to Young Lions members now! Head to the link in our bio RSVP or become a member. For any questions please email [email protected].

We're excited to welcome our Young Lions this evening to an exclusive pre-reception celebrating the Library's newest exhibition, The Awe of the Arctic: A Visual History!

If you're a groundhog you're patiently waiting to shed those winter layers. But if you're a Young Lion you don't have to wait for lots of exciting events! Check your inbox for our February newsletter to find winter and spring event details. If you're not a subscriber head to the link in our bio!

You and your family are invited to join children’s author, Josh Funk, on February 3 for an exciting morning exploring the Library! Josh will read from his book Lost in the Library: A Story of Patience & Fortitude. After the reading, we will embark on a scavenger hunt of the Library based on clues from the book. For more information on this event email [email protected].

Last night our Tilden Conservator level Young Lions enjoyed an intimate evening with acclaimed author Daniel Magariel, who discussed his artistic evolution and progression as a novelist. Those in attendance also got an exclusive first listen to an excerpt from Daniel’s novel-in-progress.

If you’re interested in exclusive events like this email [email protected] for information on joining or upgrading your membership!

Just like her books, delivered humor and a happily ever after at Cocktails & Conversation! We had a blast and can't wait to read Wreck the Halls☃️🎸

About last night…

We had a blast celebrating this year’s esteemed class of Library Lions at the Young Lions Benefit Party! Thank you for everyone who turned out in support of the Library’s commitment to free and open access to ideas, diverse experiences, and truthful information. 🦁❤️

We see a trip to the Library in your near future 🔮✨ Thank you to everyone who attended Archives & Astrology last week. Thank you to Aliza Kelly and Mia Lardiere for such a magical night!

Come for the spicy romance novels, stay for the spicy margaritas🌶🍹
On November 14, #1 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey joins the Young Lions to discuss her new holiday rom-com Wreck the Halls as part of our Cocktails & Conversation series. Email [email protected] to RSVP!

In honor of Banned Books Week, the annual celebration of the freedom to read, help librarians at the Harry Belafonte 115th Street Library in Harlem educate young audiences about their right to free expression. Following a tour with branch manager Tequila Davis, Young Lion volunteers will assist with creating advocacy installations and generating social media content for community outreach. If you would like to participate in our Young Lions Volunteer Day on Saturday, September 30, please email [email protected].

Last chance to reserve pre-sale tickets to the Young Lions Benefit Party from 9 PM-midnight on Monday, November 6 on sale now through Monday, September 4!

Young Lions, friends, and literature lovers are welcome at the Young Lions Benefit Party—the official after party of the Library Lions Gala. We hope you will join us in celebration of our 2023 Library Lions and The New York Public Library!

Email [email protected] to purchase tickets for the Young Lions Benefit Party.

Young Lions! Join us for Archives & Astrology, a night of mysticism at The New York Public Library, on Wednesday, October 4 at 6 PM! Discover modern astrology over specialty cocktails with celebrity astrology Aliza Kelly. Young Lions are also invited to enjoy a behind-the-scenes tour of the Library’s cosmic holdings with Madeleine Viljoen, Curator of Prints and the Spencer Collection.

Young Lion Conservators and above are invited to attend an advance film screening of Shortcomings before it premieres on Friday, August 4!

Shortcomings is a comedy-drama directed by Randall Park, from a screenplay by Adrian Tomine, based on his comic of the same name.

Ben (Just H. Min), a struggling filmmaker, lives in Berkeley, California, with his girlfriend, Miko (Ally Maki), who works for a local Asian American film festival. When he's not managing an arthouse movie theater as his day job, Ben spends his time obsessing over unavailable blonde women, watching Criterion Collection DVDs, and eating in diners with his best friend Alice (Sherry Cola), a q***r grad student with a serial dating habit. When Miko moves to New York for an internship, Ben is left to his own devices, and begins to explore what he thinks he may want.

Limited availability and RSVP required. Please email [email protected] to RSVP for an advance screening on Monday, July 31 at 6:30 PM or Thursday, August 3 at 6 PM.