National Book Foundation announces its 5 under 35 honorees

The National Book Foundation, the organization that presents the National Book Awards, announced its 5 under 35 honorees this morning. It honors fiction writers under the age of 35 who have published their first books; the prize helps bring attention to beginning writers struggling to stand out in a competitive literary landscape.

The five writers are selected by accomplished writers, all previous winners of the award; this year’s selectors were ZZ Packer, Phil Klay, Dinaw Mengestu, Paul Yoon and Fiona Maazel.

The authors they selected were:

Phil Klay: Megan Kruse, author of “Call Me Home� (Hawthorne Books)

Fiona Maazel: Tracy O’Neill, author of “The Hopeful� (Ig Publishing)

Dinaw Mengestu: Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, author of “Fra Keeler� (Dorothy, a publishing project)

ZZ Packer: Angela Flournoy, author of “The Turner House� (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Paul Yoon: Colin Barrett, author of “Young Skins� (Black Cat / Grove Atlantic)

Of note is the strong presence of independent publishers on the list. The St. Louis-based Dorothy, a Publishing Project, now 5 years old, publishes mainly books by women and limits itself to just two books a year. Hawthorne Books, based in Portland, Ore., has been publishing books since 2001 that take “innovative and varied approaches to the relationships between essay, memoir, and narrative.� And part of indie Ig Publishing’s mission is to publish fiction by “writers who have been overlooked by the mainstream publishing establishment.� Their presence here shows that some of America’s best new fiction may be finding its first foothold outside of the established New York publishing houses.

Each 5 under 35 winner will get $1,000, and be honored at a celebration in New York. This year’s host is actor and “Reading Rainbow� creator LeVar Burton.

Book news and more; I’m @paperhaus on Twitter