Winner Announcement
Launch Date: August 1, 2026
ISBN: 9781941561423
Paperback | 5.25″ X 8.0″
Winner of the 2024 New American Fiction Prize, Thomas Kevin O’Rourke’s new collection Buddha Wrestles Faust in a Field of Skulls and other stories will be released in 2026. Pre-orders will be available at Bookshop.org. Every purchase at Bookshop.org financially supports independent bookstores.
Thomas Kevin O’Rourke is of Mixed Cultural Heritage and identity. A retired bargeman, he leads men’s groups to end violence and deconstruct classism and racism, emphasizing restorative justice and healing from atrocity. His fiction and nonfiction appear in Long Story/Short Literary Journal, Tahoma Literary Review, Revolver, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Blue Collar Review, Split Rock Review, O-Dark-Thirty Veterans’ Writing Project alongside a Tim O’Brien interview, read by Joyce Carol Oates, and nominated for the Best American Short Fiction.
Finalists for the New American Fiction Prize include:
- Bonn by Collin Williams from Pittsburgh, PA
- The Blue Place by Michael Peck from Oregon City, OR
- Keystone Species by Darci Schummer from Colorado Springs, CO
- Motorcycle Pope by Adam Straus from New York, NY
- The Obligations of the Morning by Tom Hopkins from Oberlin, OH
- PostShow by John Tait from Flower Mound, TX
