This is a list of young authors (under 40), arranged in age order, who have published a novel in English with an established publishing house. I (Stephen) compiled this list of young people for young people, so that young writers and readers can have a better sense of what younger writers are up to these days. This might also help older generations better understand where literature is headed in the future and how these younger writers are incorporating influences from prior generations.
Some particularly notable (to me, at least) writers on this list are: Édouard Louis (32), a prolific political writer who also advocates for an “explicit” and “confrontational” literary style; Mohamed Mbougar Sarr (34), who won the ‘21 Prix Goncourt for his Bolaño-esque novel The Most Secret Memory of Men; Elisa Shua Dupasin (32), who won the ‘21 National Book Award for Winter in Sokcho, a spare novel about Korean culture and love; Asta Olivia Nordenhof (36), whose planned septology Money to Burn is already a huge success in Scandinavia; Kevin Lambert (32), who has published three novels so far and been nominated for the Prix Goncourt and won the Prix Médicis; and Munir Hachemi (35), whose novel Living Things successfully synthesizes the traditions of political fiction, autofiction, thriller, and meta-fiction, all while retaining its readability and humor.
Did I miss someone? Email me at submissions@calfmagazine.com. I’m currently working on a similar list of poets.
Chukwuebuka Ibeh - Nigeria (24)
Blessings (Viking, 2024)
Rin Usami - Japan (25)
Idol, Burning (HarperVia, 2022)
Pol Guasch - Spain (26)
Napalm in the Heart (FSG, 2024)
Julia Kornberg - Argentina (26)
Berlin Atomized (Astra House, 2024)
William Ping - Canada (28)
Hollow Bamboo (HarperCollins, 2023)
Jade Song - U.S. (28)
Chlorine (William Morrow, 2023)
Jessica George - England (29)
Maame (St. Martin’s, 2023)
Andrea Abreu - Spain (29)
Dogs of Summer (Astra House, 2022)
Maria Navarro Skaranger - Norway (30)
Emily Forever (World Editions, 2024)
Eliot Duncan - U.S. (~30)
Ponyboy (W.W. Norton, 2023)
Melissa Mogollon - U.S. (30)
Oye (Hogarth, 2024)
Billy-Ray Belcourt - U.S. (30)
A Minor Chorus (W.W. Norton, 2022)
Tess Gunty - U.S. (31)
The Rabbit Hutch (Knopf, 2022)
Won the 2022 National Book Award
Helenę Bukowski - Germany (31)
Milk Teeth (Unnamed Press, 2021)
Caleb Azumah Nelson - Ghana (31)
Small Worlds (Grove Press, 2023)
Open Water (Grove Press, 2021)
Clyo Mendoza - Mexico (31)
Fury (Seven Stories Press, 2024)
Dizz Tate - U.S. (31)
Brutes (Catapult, 2023)
Bryan Washington - U.S. (31)
Family Meal (Riverhead, 2023)
Memorial (Riverhead, 2021)
Katherine Packert Burke - U.S. (~31)
Still Life (W.W. Norton, 2024)
Édouard Louis - France (32)
Change (FSG, 2024)
Who Killed My Father (New Directions, 2023)
A Woman’s Battles and Transformations (FSG, 2023)
History of Violence (Picador, 2022)
The End of Eddy (Vintage, 2019)
Noor Naga - Canada (32)
If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English (Graywolf, 2022)
Antonia Angress - U.S. (32)
Sirens and Muses (Ballantine Books, 2022)
Fine Gråbøl - Denmark (32)
What Kingdom (Archipelago Books, 2024)
Elisa Shua Dusapin - France (32)
Vladivostok Circus (Open Letter, 2024)
The Pachinko Parlour (Open Letter, 2022)
Winter in Sokcho (Open Letter, 2021)
Won the 2021 National Book Award
Kevin Lambert - Canada (32)
May Our Joy Endure (Biblioasis, 2024)
Querelle of Roberval (Biblioasis, 2022)
You Will Love What You Have Killed (Biblioasis, 2020)
Maud Ventura - France (32)
Make Me Famous (HarperVia, 2025)
My Husband (HarperVia, 2023)
Won France’s first novel prize
Aube Rey Lescure - France/China/U.S. (~32)
River East, River West (William Morrow, 2024)
Jonas Eika - Denmark (33)
After the Sun (Riverhead, 2018)
Won the Nordic Council Literature Prize (Pulitzer equivalent)
Lucas Rijneveld - Netherlands (33)
My Heavenly Favorite (Graywolf, 2024)
The Discomfort of Evening (Graywolf, 2020)
Won the 2020 International Booker Prize (Booker equivalent)
Rebecca Gisler - Switzerland (33)
About Uncle (Two Lines Press, 2024)
Sally Rooney - Ireland (33)
Conversations with Friends (Penguin, 2017)
Normal People (Penguin, 2018)
Beautiful World, Where Are You (FSG, 2021)
Intermezzo (FSG, 2024)
Emily O’Grady - Australia (33)
Feast (Allen & Unwin, 2024)
The Yellow House (Allen & Unwin, 2018)
Oisín McKenna - Ireland (33)
Evenings and Weekends (Mariner, 2024)
Clare Sestanovich - U.S. (~33)
Ask Me Again (Knopf, 2024)
Fatima Farheen Mirza - U.S. (33)
A Place for Us (Hogarth, 2019)
Frederika Amalia Finkelstein - France (33)
Survive (Deep Vellum, 2024)
Forgetting (Deep Vellum, 2024)
Natalia García Freire - Ecuador (33)
A Carnival of Atrocities (World Editions, 2025)
This World Does Not Belong to Us (World Editions, 2022)
Yasmin Zaher - Palestine (33)
The Coin (Catapult, 2024)
Aria Aber - U.S. (33)
Good Girl (Hogarth, 2025)
Morgan Talty - U.S. (33)
Fire Exit (Tin House, 2024)
Elizabeth O’Connor - England (33)
Whale Fall (Pantheon, 2024)
Lily Meyer - U.S. (~33)
The Short War (Deep Vellum, 2024)
Daniel Hornsby - U.S. (~33)
Via Negativa (Viking, 2020)
Sucker (Vintage, 2023)
Andrew Boryga - U.S. (~33)
Victim (Doubleday, 2024)
Megan Nolan - Ireland (34)
Ordinary Human Failings (Little, Brown, 2024)
Acts of Desperation (Little, Brown, 2021)
Fariha Róisín - Australia (34)
Like a Bird (Unnamed Press, 2020)
Patjim Statovci - Finland (34)
Bolla (Vintage, 2021)
Crossing (Vintage, 2019)
My Cat Yugoslavia (Vintage, 2017)
Seán Hewitt - England (34)
Open, Heaven (Knopf, 2025)
All Down Darkness Wide (Penguin Press, 2022)
Cemile Sahin - Turkey (34)
All Dogs Die (MTO Books, 2024)
Niviaq Korneliussen - Greenland (34)
Crimson (Virago Press, 2019)
Last Night in Nuuk (Grove Press, 2019)
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr - Ghana (34)
The Most Secret Memory of Men (Other Press, 2023)
Won the 2021 Prix Goncourt (Pulitzer equivalent)
The Silence of the Choir (Europa Editions, 2024)
Brotherhood (Europa Editions, 2021)
Javier Zamora - El Salvador (34)
Solito (Hogarth, 2022)
Irene Solà - Spain (34)
I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness (Graywolf, 2025)
When I Sing, Mountains Dance (Graywolf, 2019)
Madelaine Lucas - U.S. (34)
Thirst for Salt (Tin House, 2023)
Isabella Hammad - England (34)
Enter Ghost (Grove Press, 2024)
The Parisian (Grove Press, 2019)
Raven Leilani - U.S. (34)
Luster (Picador, 2021)
Brit Bennet - U.S. (34)
The Vanishing Half (Riverhead, 2022)
The Mothers (Riverhead, 2017)
Bruno Lloret - Chile (34)
Nancy (Two Lines Press, 2021)
Oksana Vasyakina - Russia (34)
Wound (Catapult, 2023)
Munir Hachemi - Spain (35)
Living Things (Coach House Books, 2024)
Yaa Gyasi - Ghana (35)
Transcendent Kingdom (Vintage, 2021)
Homegoing (Vintage, 2017)
Chloe Benjamin - U.S. (35)
The Immortalists (Putnam, 2019)
The Anatomy of Dreams (Atria, 2018
Joseph Earl Thomas - U.S. (35)
God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer (Grand Central Publishing, 2024)
Brandon Taylor - U.S. (35)
The Late Americans (Riverhead, 2023)
Real Life (Riverhead, 2020)
Kaveh Akbar - U.S. (35)
Martyr! (Knopf, 2024)
Esther Yi - U.S./Korea (35)
Y/N (Astra House, 2023)
Coco Mellors - U.S. (35)
Cleopatra and Frankenstein (Bloomsbury, 2024)
Blue Sisters (Ballantine Books, 2024)
Maria Sanchez - Spain (35)
Land of Women (Trinity University Press, 2022)
Tom Crewe - England (35)
The New Life (Scribner, 2023)
Sven Popović - Croatia (35)
Last Night (Dalkey Archive Press, 2024)
Emma Cline - U.S. (35)
The Guest (Random House, 2024)
The Girls (Random House, 2016)
Ocean Vuong - U.S. (36)
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (Penguin, 2019)
Victor Heringer (b. 1988, d. 2017)
The Love of Singular Men (New Directions, 2023)
Ariane Koch - Switzerland (36)
Overstaying (NYRB, 2024)
Kaliane Bradley - England (36)
The Ministry of Time (Avid Reader Press, 2024)
Olivia Sudjic - England (36)
Asylum Road (Bloomsbury, 2021)
Sympathy (Harper Perennial, 2017)
Stéfanie Clermont - Canada (36)
The Music Game (Biblioasis, 2022)
Ayobami Adebayo - Nigeria (36)
A Spell of Good Things (Vintage, 2024)
Stay With Me (Vintage, 2018)
Aura García-Junco - Mexico (36)
May God Blast the Woman Who Writes About Me (MTO Press, 2024)
Jazmina Barrera - Mexico (36)
Cross-Stitch (Two Lines Press, 2023)
Linea Nigra (Two Lines Press, 2022)
Rita Bullwinkel - U.S. (36)
Headshot (Viking, 2024)
Pauline Delabroy-Allard - France (36)
They Say Sarah (Other Press, 2020)
Oyinkan Braithwaite - Nigeria (36)
My Sister, the Serial Killer (Viking, 2018)
Asta Olivia Nordenhof - Denmark (36)
Money to Burn (Jonathan Cape, 2025)
Diego Zuñiga - Chile (37)
Camancha (Coffee House Press, 2017)
Johanne Lykke Holm - Sweden (37)
Strega (Riverhead, 2023)
Yael van der Wouden - Netherlands (37)
The Safekeep (Viking, 2024)
Mateo García Elizondo - Mexico (37)
Last Date in El Zapotal (Charco Press, 2024)
Miguel Bonnefoy - France (37)
Heritage (Other Press, 2022)
Cristina Bendek - Colombia (37)
Salt Crystals (Charco Press, 2022)
Sarah Bernstein - Canada (37)
Study for Obedience (Knopf, 2023)
The Coming Bad Days (Daunt Books, 2021)
Petar Andonovski - Macedonia (37)
The Summer Without You (Parthian Books, 2024)
Fear of Barbarians (Parthian Books, 2022)
Camilla Grudova - Canada (37)
Children of Paradise (Atlantic Books, 2022)
Clara Drummond - Brazil (38)
Role Play (FSG, 2024)
Olga Ravn - Denmark (38)
The Employees (New Directions, 2023)
My Work (New Directions, 2023)
Alexandra Kleeman - U.S. (38)
Something New Under the Sun (Hogarth, 2022)
You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine (Harper Perennial, 2016)
Phillip B. Williams - U.S. (38)
Ours (Viking, 2024)
Alice Zeniter - France (38)
The Art of Losing (Picador, 2022)
Lana Bastašić - Serbia (38)
Catch the Rabbit (Restless Books, 2021)
Dorothee Elmiger - Switzerland (39)
Out of the Sugar Factory (Two Lines Press, 2023)
Shift Sleepers (Seagull Books, 2019)
Invitation to the Bold of Heart (Seagull Books, 2011)
Tine Høeg - Denmark (39)
New Passengers (Lolli Editions, 2020)
Eleanor Catton - U.S. (39)
Birnam Wood (Picador, 2023)
The Luminaries (Back Bay Books, 2013)
Won the 2013 Booker Prize
Dahlia De La Cerda - Mexico (39)
Reservoir Bitches (Feminist Press, 2024)
Alisa Ganieva - Russia (39)
Offended Sensibilities (Deep Vellum, 2022)
Bride and Groom (Deep Vellum, 2018)
The Mountain and the Wall (Deep Vellum, 2015)
Key words: young authors, young American authors, young Spanish authors, young French authors, young Scandinavian authors, young novelists, young writers, young literary writers, novelists under 40, novelists under 30, list of young authors, list of young writers, list of young novelists.