Tommy Orange Wins the 2025 Aspen Words Literary Prize

Aspen Words laureate Tommy Orange says, ‘At a time like this, it could be hardest to believe in art and how it can impact the world.’

Tommy Orange. Image: Penguin Random House, Michael Lionstar

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

‘Bearers of America’s History of Violence’

Very near the time when Egyptian writer Mohamed Samir Nada was winning the International Prize for Arabic Fiction here in the United Arab Emirates, the highly regarded American writer Tommy Orange was winning the  Aspen Words Literary Prize in New York City.

In a comment sent to the awards’ program from Orange, who was unable to be present in person, Orange spoke about the parallel difficulties of writing in a time of crisis. He said, in part, “At a time like this, it could be hardest to believe in art and how it can impact the world. It also happens to be when we need it to most.

“Writing itself is an act of faith. You throw your fingers at the keyboard believing something more will come of it than what you could otherwise record to a voice note and simply transcribe later — believing there is something bigger than you, right behind that same pair of eyes that looks back at you with disgust.

“It took six years to write Wandering Stars. Belief, in brief, feels sometimes doable, but stretched over time impossible.”

“It took six years to write Wandering Stars. Belief, in brief, feels sometimes doable, but stretched over time impossible.”Tommy Orange

The US$35,000 Aspen Words Literary Prize is awarded annually “to an influential work of fiction that illuminates a vital contemporary issue and demonstrates the transformative power of literature on thought and culture.”

This is a program of the international nonprofit Aspen Institute and bears the organization’s hallmark of socially and politically serious intent: Open to authors of any nationality, the award carries one of the largest purses among  literary prizes in the United States, and it’s one of the few focused exclusively on fiction with social impact.

Freed of the consumerist come-hither imperative of entertainment, the Aspen Words Literary Prize presents its contenders each year without overheated descriptions of plots and emotional hooks.

You can see this, of course, in the five-title shortlist below from which Orange and his Wandering Stars (Penguin Random House / Knopf / 1924) were chosen.

Orange’s book is described by the Aspen program as “a family story that traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School through three generations.”  Orange is a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma.

Jury members for this year’s Aspen Words program wrote in their rationale, “Every tribal nation has its own story that deserves fierce emotional and intellectual telling.

“[In] Wandering Stars, Orange’s characters become the bearers of America’s history of violence, the vessels of trauma and spirituality, and the wandering stars of addiction and redemption.

“Wandering Stars serves to deepen and inform Orange’s fine debut novel There, There (also from Penguin Random House, 2018) but it also stands on its own as a mesmerizing epic drama.”

This year’s jury has comprised John Deasy; Louise Erdrich, the 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize winner; Ben Fountain; Vanessa Hua; and Tayari Jones, the 2019 Aspen Words Literary Prize winner.

Aspen Words Literary Prize 2025 Shortlist

At New York City’s Morgan Library and Museum on Thursday (April 23), broadcaster, essayist and critic Bilal Qureshi moderated an onstage conversation with prize finalists Percival Everett (James); Afabwaje Kurian (Before the Mango Ripens); and Ruben Reyes Jr. (There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven).

Orange’s first book, There, There, was also shortlisted by the Aspen prize in 2019, as it was for the Pulitzer. It won the 2019 National Book Award.

A recording of the awards event has been provided to us by the Aspen Words program:

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.

Adrienne Brodeur, Aspen Institute, Aspen Words Literary Prize, Authors, Book Prize, Fiction, United States