The longlist for The Center for Fiction 2025 First Novel Prize is out. The fiction longlist features British-Jamaican author Yrsa Daley-Ward for her debut novel The Catch. Daley-Ward was selected from a submission pool of 185 books, marking a significant achievement for this accomplished poet making her first venture into long-form fiction.

Established in 2006, The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize celebrates outstanding debut novels while championing new voices in contemporary fiction. The annual award provides the winning author with $15,000 to acknowledge their literary achievement and foster their continuing writing career. Should Daley-Ward claim victory, she would join a distinguished roster of previous recipients that includes Marisha Pessl, Junot Díaz, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Tommy Orange, Raven Leilani, and De’Shawn Charles Winslow.

Before turning to fiction, Yrsa Daley-Ward has established herself as a voice in contemporary poetry. She is a celebrated poet and writer whose work spotlights themes of identity, vulnerability, and resilience. Her debut poetry collection, bone (2017), garnered international acclaim for its raw, lyrical explorations of love, trauma, religion, and selfhood. In 2018, she published The Terrible, a memoir chronicling her childhood in northwest England, grappling with sexuality, addiction, and coming of age as a first-generation Black British woman. Her latest book, The How: Notes on the Great Work of Meeting Yourself (2021), blends poems and meditations to guide readers toward authentic self-exploration. Daley-Ward’s works are renowned for their unflinching honesty and their powerful portrayal of personal and cultural struggle.

Her longlisted work The Catch follows twin sisters Clara and Dempsey, whose familial bond was severed after their mother vanished into the Thames. Adopted into different families as infants—Clara to a successful, upper-class couple and Dempsey to a sullen, unaffectionate city councilor—the sisters have grown content to remain estranged in adulthood. Their carefully maintained distance collapses when Clara encounters a woman on London’s streets who looks exactly like their mother. The catch: this version of Serene appears not to have aged a day and has lived a childless life—the very existence she might have enjoyed if the girls had never been born.

The novel explores the sisters’ conflicting responses to this mysterious figure. In this riveting debut fiction, Daley-Ward crafts what critics describe as “a kaleidoscopic multiverse of daughterhood and mother-want,” examining the profound sacrifices women make for self-actualization. It asks: “How can it ever, ever be a crime to choose yourself?”

The shortlist will be announced in the Fall by a judging panel of four distinguished authors, with each shortlisted author receiving a $1,000 award. The First Novel Prize winner will be announced at The Center’s Annual Awards Benefit on Tuesday, December 9, 2025.

The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize has a tradition of recognizing diverse voices in contemporary literature. In recent years, the prize has celebrated authors from various backgrounds who bring fresh perspectives to American fiction, continuing its mission to support emerging writers who challenge and expand the literary landscape.

Congratulations to Yrsa Daley-Ward and all the longlisted authors for this remarkable achievement in their literary careers!