AN EVENING WITH YOUNG LIONS

Last night found a large crowd of literary and socialite types gathered at the New York Public Library in celebration of the Young Lions Fiction Award. Awarded each spring to an American writer 35 years or younger for a novel or collection of short stories, the $10,000 prize was founded by Ethan Hawke, Hannah McFarland, Rick Moody and Jennifer Rudolph Walsh in 2001. Since then the committee has given away more than $140,000 of prize money to young writers.

The nominees this year were Wells Tower for his short story collection "Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned", C.E. Morgan for her novel "All the Living", Philipp Meyer for his novel "American Rust", Jedediah Berry for his novel "The Manual of Detection" and Katie Kitamura for her novel "The Longshot". Copies of all five books rested upon each of the tables arranged in the votive-lit Celeste Bartos forum along with bowls of jellybeans and many glasses of champagne.

Ethan Hawke—the face of the Young Lions and himself a novelist— was first onstage, introducing the five writers with a charmingly ad-hoc speech emphasising the importance of encouraging new generations of writers to work creatively. He admitted that the competition itself was a "bit of artifice to add drama to the proceedings", noting that all five books were selected because they deserved to win, and observing that the selection process had felt "a little like English class". Hawke and three fellow actors—Emily Mortimer, Alessandro Nivola and Josh Hamilton—proceeded to read selections from each of the books (chosen by the authors) while New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham snapped away.

Paul LeClerc, the library's president, followed the readings with a speech honouring the young writers. "What an author needs," LeClerc noted, "is more than brilliance. They need an ability to sit still and think deeply. In many ways, they represent an antidote to the fleeting nature of American culture.” When it was time to announce the winner, a respectful silence blanketed the crowd until Wells Tower's name was called, at which point the room erupted in applause. Tower collected his award, expressed his gratitude briefly and sincerely, and adjourned the night. Revellers divided the nominated paperbacks stacked on each table among themselves and filtered out into the night, buoyant with champagne and seemingly eager, for once, to do the assigned reading.