Tommy Orange Has Won The Aspen Words Literary Prize For Wandering Stars.

On April 23, Aspen Words announced nan victor of the 2025 Aspen Words Literary Prize, which awards $35,000 each twelvemonth to “a activity of fabrication that illuminates a captious modern rumor and demonstrates nan transformative powerfulness of lit connected thought and culture.”

This year’s winner, chosen by a assemblage consisting of Dr. John Deasy, Louise Erdrich, Ben Fountain, Vanessa Hua and Tayari Jones, is Tommy Orange’s Wandering Stars.

“Every tribal federation has its ain communicative that deserves fierce affectional and intelligence telling,” said nan assemblage successful a statement. “Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, takes america from nan Sand Creek Massacre to Oakland, California. On nan measurement there, his characters go nan bearers of America’s history of violence, nan vessels of trauma and spirituality, and nan wandering stars of addiction and redemption. Wandering Stars serves to deepen and pass Orange’s good debut caller There, There, but it besides stands connected its ain arsenic a mesmerizing epic drama.”

Wandering Stars was selected from a shortlist that included Percival Everett’s James, Afabwaje Kurian’s Before nan Mango Ripens, Ruben Reyes Jr.’s There Is a Rio Grande successful Heaven, and Yael van der Wouden’s The Safekeep.

You tin watch nan afloat ceremonial here.