January 7, 2025, 10:00am

Today, The DAG Foundation for the Arts, established by musicians Alyssa and Douglas Graham, announces the DAG Prize for Literature, a new annual prize that will award $20,000 to “an early-career prose writer whose work expands the possibilities for American writing.”

The DAG Prize for Literature distinguishes itself by its emphasis on originality and boundary-pushing, particularly, as the Foundation puts it, “in an age in which publishing industry consolidation, among other factors, risks creating a literary culture that is less original, diverse, and rich.” To combat the slow creep into industry-wide literary sameness, DAG Prize for Literature will support writing that “offers significant innovation,” whether manifested in form, content, genre, or otherwise. “What more can prose literature be?” this prize asks. “What more can it do?”

“At the DAG Foundation, we are most excited about championing originality and hard work in the arts by directly reaching those individuals who break through today’s homogenous art scene,” Alyssa and Douglas Graham said in a statement. “In literature, we are looking past publishing trends and track records in hopes of finding those worthy artists who are opening new directions and pushing boundaries in order to create the art of the 21st century.”

The 2025 DAG Prize in Literature will be awarded to a writer at work on their second book. It is one of three new annual $20,000 prizes offered by the DAG Foundation; the other two will be awarded to a musician and a visual artist. Applications open February 1. Find out more and apply here.