The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje, translated from the Dutch by David McKay (New Vessel Press) has won the 2025 Republic of Consciousness Prize, United States and Canada.
Prize founder Lori Feathers said, "It's an honor to recognize and congratulate the work of New Vessel Press with its publication of the extraordinary novel, The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje, translated from the Dutch by David McKay. Small, independent publishers like New Vessel Press demonstrate time and again that art is a passion, not a corporate endeavor; that curating writers and nurturing their unique prose merits readers' avid attention and adoration."
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Finalists have been selected for the 2026 Aspen Words Literary Prize, sponsored by Aspen Words, a program of the Aspen Institute, and honoring "a work of fiction that illuminates a vital contemporary issue and demonstrates the transformative power of literature on thought and culture."
The winner, who receives $35,000, will be announced April 23 at an awards dinner in New York City that will feature a conversation with finalist authors moderated by Elisabeth Egan, writer and editor at the New York Times Book Review. The winning book will be featured in the annual Community Read sponsored by Aspen Words and Pitkin County Library in Aspen, Colo. As part of the program, free copies of the novel will be distributed throughout Roaring Fork Valley.
The finalists:
The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine (Grove Press)
Intemperance by Sonora Jha (HarperVia)
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (Flatiron Books)
Endling by Maria Reva (Doubleday)
So Far Gone by Jess Walter (Harper)