Tell us a New York story: Finalists announced for $50,000 Gotham Book Prize

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NEW YORK (AP) — Rumaan Alam's “Entitlement,” Ian Frazier's “Paradise Bronx” and Lisa Ko's “Memory Piece” are among 14 finalists for the Gotham Book Prize, a $50,000 award for outstanding fiction or nonfiction writing about New York City.

The prize was established in 2020 by businessman-philanthropist Bradley Tusk and political strategist Howard Wolfson, who said at the time that the pandemic gave them a heightened sense of the importance of literature.

Other nominees announced Friday include Xochitl Gonzalez's “Anita de Monte Laughs Last,” Prithi Kanakamedala's “Brooklynites,” Guy Trebay's “Do Something,” Joél Leon's “Everything and Nothing at Once,” Muriel Leung's “How to Fall in Love in a Time of Unnameable Disaster” and Nicole Gelinas' “Movement.”

Yasmin Zaher's “The Coin,” Karen Valby's “Swans of Harlem,” Tricia Romano's “The Freaks Come Out to Write,” Anna Akbari's “There Is No Ethan” and Andrew Boryga's “Victim” also were named as finalists.

The winner will be announced in the spring.

“Each of these 14 finalists have captured a compelling and unique slice of the New York City story,” Tusk and Wolfson said in a statement. “Whether fiction or nonfiction, set in decades past or even the future, these books reflect the vibrancy, complexity, and resilience that define New York."

Previous winners include Colson Whitehead's “Crook Manifesto” and Andrea Elliott’s nonfiction “Invisible Child."