Columbia Alums and Faculty Longlisted for the 2026 First Novel Prize

The Center for Fiction recently announced the longlist for its 2026 First Novel Prize, which includes three Columbia University alums and faculty: Fiction alum Woody Brown '24; Undergraduate Creative Writing Adjunct Assistant Professor Giada Scodellaro; and Columbia College alum Stacey Yu (CC '20).

Established in 2006, the First Novel Prize is a prestigious, annual award presented by the Center for Fiction, a non-profit organization based in New York City. The prize celebrates fiction writers for their contributions to contemporary literature and connects readers and writers.

This year, the longlist titles were selected from more than 180 submitted titles with U.S. publication dates between January 1 and December 31, 2026. Over 500 participants among the Center’s diverse community of writers, booksellers, librarians, members, and staff reviewed and narrowed down the submissions to 19 debut novels. In the fall, a judging panel of four distinguished authors will select the 2026 First Novel Prize Shortlist, and the winner will be announced in December.

Brown was longlisted for Upward Bound (Hogarth, 2026), a novel set in \a dreary adult daycare center for Los Angeles' disabled community. For many, it is a place of last resort. The novel follows Carlos, a young aide who lost his mother as a boy and now works there alongside his beloved sister, Mariana; Jorge, the gentle nonspeaking giant whom Carlos seeks to befriend (and prevent from escaping); Tom, a beautiful young man with cerebral palsy who pines for Ann, the summer lifeguard at the center’s pool who feels out of her depth. Then there’s Dave, Upward Bound’s director, who came to L.A. to pursue an acting career but now channels his passion into staging an overly ambitious holiday show starring the center’s irrepressible clients. Framing these intertwined narratives—and connecting them in surprising, shattering ways—is the riveting and sometimes ironic testimony of Walter, a recent community college graduate who, after a family tragedy, must return to the company of his disabled peers.

Literary Hub describes the novel as "an interlocking, polyphonic portrait of a community often overlooked . . . It’s a startlingly unique and fresh perspective on the world: we’re lucky to exist inside Brown’s creation, a deeply heartfelt exploration of humanity.”

Brown became the first nonspeaking autistic graduate of UCLA in 2022, where he received the English department’s top writing honors. He completed his MFA in creative writing at Columbia University in 2024. He lives in Los Angeles and is working on a second novel.

Scodellaro was longlisted for Ruins, Child (New Directions Publishing, 2026), which follows six women sharing a space in a derelict apartment tower and is set in what may be the future. Using the lenses of urban infrastructure, botany, folklore, choreography, and collective listening, Ruins, Child creates a new ethnography of place and an ode to both communal ruins and resistance. In the vivacity of their telling, Scodellaro’s heroines obscure authority, setting afoot a radical freeing-up.

Katie Kitamura, author of Audition, a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize, describes Scodellaro as "one of the most astonishing writers of her generation... Scodellaro refracts and redefines the canon of Black culture, the archive of Black experience. The result is a masterpiece that lives and breathes on the page, every sentence shimmering with wit, musicality, brilliance and verve."

Scodellaro is also the author of the collection Some of Them Will Carry Me, which The New Yorker named one of its best books of 2022. Her writings have appeared in or are forthcoming from The New Yorker, BOMB, Harper’s, Granta, and Brick, among others. She is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University. 

Yu was longlisted for Kitten (Random House, 2026). The novel follows Katie, who is far from home, fresh out of college, and desperate to skirt the demands of adult life. It doesn’t help that she no longer speaks to her mother or that she owes her roommate and closest friend months of rent. Luckily, her self-assured, generous boyfriend James seems happy to make decisions for them both.

When James takes Katie on vacation to his family’s seaside house, he brings Silver, his childhood cat, and Katie discovers a sudden, strange, and giddy connection. As Katie’s affection for Silver deepens, her other relationships begin to falter, until she’s forced to confront what she really desires from life—and what she might have to risk to get it.

Kirkus Reviews describes Yu’s novel as "both a kind of Gen Z parable of existential nihilism and a psychologically deft portrait of mother-daughter trauma." The review adds, "The story shines with sharp intelligence. Weird girl lit is having a moment, but this spiky debut refuses to be boxed in.”

Columbia University community members are frequently well represented as winners and finalists. Last year, alum Mariam Rahmani '21 was shortlisted for her novel Liquid, and in 2022, Daphne Palasi Andreades '19 for Brown Girls,and Jessamine Chan '12 for Good Mothers, were included on the shortlist.