Barnes & Noble Announces Their 2025 Discover Prize Finalists10/20/2025

The Prize Celebrates the Best New Writers Published This Year

New York, NY - September 17, 2025 - Today Barnes & Noble announces its Discover Prize finalists, the six most exceptional debut novels published in 2025. For decades, Barnes & Noble booksellers have been at the forefront of championing up-and-coming authors, propelling many to bestseller status through their passionate recommendations. In an extremely robust publishing year, B&N booksellers across the country have read hundreds of new authors to narrow down to the six books that make up the shortlist.

"Elevating debut voices is, hands down, one of the best parts of being a bookseller," said Lexie Smyth, Campaign Manager for Fiction, Barnes & Noble. "The Discover Prize shortlist was selected by a panel of booksellers from around the country - after many lively and impassioned conversations - and we believe these six writers are well on the way to becoming household names."

These are extraordinary, indelible and surprising stories about beginnings and endings and coming-of-age, the secrets we keep and the lessons we learn, the people we love and the people we leave behind - these debut novels are the ones that most impressed the booksellers of Barnes & Noble this year. The 2025 Discover Prize Winner will be announced on October 9^th during a live event held in the bookseller's Upper West Side location.

"Listening to our booksellers champion (and debate) their favorite debuts of the year is an absolute delight," said Shannon DeVito, Senior Director of Books, Barnes & Noble. "The competition is always wonderfully fierce, the booksellers fully engaged. This shortlist delivers six indelible reads that we're excited to celebrate with readers everywhere."

Here is what our Booksellers had to say about the 2025 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize Shortlist:

Kaplan's Plot by Jason Diamond

"A delight! It only took a couple of pages for me to be hooked. For me, Jason Diamond's writing was the best kind of storytelling: indelible characters, a propulsive plot, and a bit of mystery. The way the novel moved between the past and the preset was flawless. I couldn't put this book down and kept turning the pages faster and faster to reach the ending." - Craig B., Minneapolis, Minnesota

Great Black Hope by Rob Franklin

"Smart, subversive and very entertaining. It's a coming-of-age-novel set in an early aughts party scene, but it's also a timeless story about power and money, image and art." - Miwa M., Los Angeles, California

Tilt by Emma Pattee

"This book grabbed me from the very first page and refused to let go. It's full of humanity, grief, and so much life." - Brenda A., Bentonville, AR

The Artist and the Feast by Lucy Steeds

"This isn't a book only to read - it's a book to experience. You will see the colors of the paint, feel the Provencial summer, walk the dusty roads, taste the foods - all while we watch a suppressed artist and their secrets waiting to be seen." - Tara S., Nashville, TN

Lonely Crowds by Stephanie Wambagu

"Elegant and empathetic, Lonely Crowds is a poignant story of friendship, love, heartbreak and art. Full of gorgeous sentences and a vibrant atmosphere that'll transport you to NYC's 90s art scene, this is a book you'll want to share with everyone you know." - Isabelle M., Manhasset, NY

Maggie: Or, A Man And A Woman Walk Into a Bar by Katie Yee

"Katie Yee has given us a gift… This story of a woman's life in complete collapse is the one of the warmest, funniest, most life-affirming novels I've read all year. It's a reminder that even when things are truly terrible, it's still an incredible thing to be alive." - Jenna S., Blaine, MN

###