Check out the 2019 Aspen Words Literary Prize longlist

The 2019 Aspen Words Literary Prize longlist has been released, in case your TBR pile of socially conscious books was looking a bit short.

The prize grants $35,000 to the author of a book that illuminates “vital contemporary issues, including but not limited to gender issues, environmental challenges, violence, inequality, justice, and issues of religion or race.”

On February 19, we’ll have a shortlist of five finalists, and the winner will be announced on April 16.

NPR, which partners with Aspen Words literary center to hand out the prize, revealed the longlist with links to its coverage of books when applicable.

Here’s the longlist, which comprises twelve novels and four short-story collections, and also includes six debut works:

• Opioid, Indiana, by Brian Allen Carr.

• Your House Will Pay, by Steph Cha.

• Dominicana, by Angie Cruz.

• Patsy, by Nicole Dennis-Benn.

• Sabrina & Corina: Stories, by Kali Fajardo-Anstine.

• The Other Americans, by Laila Lalami.

• The Beekeeper of Aleppo, by Christy Lefteri.

• Lost Children Archive, by Valeria Luiselli.

• The Beadworkers: Stories, by Beth Piatote.

• The Affairs of the Falcóns, by Melissa Rivero.

• We Cast a Shadow, by Maurice Carlos Ruffin.

• The World Doesn't Require You: Stories, by Rion Amilcar Scott.

• On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong.

• Lot: Stories, by Bryan Washington.

• The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead.

• Red at the Bone, by Jacqueline Woodson.