VCU Cabell First Novelist Award

The VCU Cabell First Novelist Award judging process involves Community Readers, the VCU MFA program and faculty, a First Novelist Committee and the winner of the previous year's award.

The deadline draws closer! Submit to the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award today. Submissions close Dec. 30th, 2025. 🔗 firstnovelist.vcu.edu/submit-a-novel/ @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries

We've been celebrating bold first novels since 2002. Here's an overview of how a Cabell First Novelist Award winner is chosen. @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries

What a night! We were delighted to host winning author Anne de Marcken and @NewDirections editor Barbara Epler for the 2025 Cabell First Novelist Award night. We so appreciated the insights they shared on writing, publishing, art, and life. @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries

TOMORROW! We'll see you at 7pm in the James Branch Cabell Library Lecture Hall (Room 303) for the Cabell First Novelist Award night! @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries

New Blackbird alert! Read the latest issue of VCU's literary journal online at blackbird.vcu.edu. @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries

Our favorite night of the year is one week away! Join us on Nov 5th for a night of celebration with Anne de Marcken, author of It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over, and Barbara Epler, editor and president of New Directions Publishing! @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries

Send us your debuts! The VCU Cabell First Novelist Award is still open for submissions. Debut novels conventionally published anytime in the 2025 calendar year are eligible. Submissions close Dec 30th, 2025. 🔗 firstnovelist.vcu.edu/submit-a-novel/ @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries

Here's a small taste of what to expect when you crack open this year's Cabell First Novelist Award winner. 🐦‍⬛ @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries

Anne de Marcken will be at Shelf Life Books in Richmond on November 5th from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM to sign copies of her book! 📖 ✍️ @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries

Congratulations to past Cabell First Novelist Award winner Jade Chang, whose new novel, What a Time to Be Alive, is out now from @eccobooks! @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries

Did you know that this year's Cabell First Novelist Winner also won the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction? 🤩 Here's what the panel had to say about Anne de Marcken's It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over. @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries

Bloomland by John Englehardt was the 2020 winner of the Cabell First Novelist Award. It's now available in paperback — check it out from Dzanc Books: dzancbooks.org/all-titles/p/b… @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries

Join VCU Creative Writing for the season's first event in our MFA reading series, Moveable Feast, this Friday! Come hear these talented MFA students read their work! 🍂 @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries

There's still time to read the winning novel ahead of the Cabell First Novelist Award night! Here's the gripping first line of It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over by Anne de Marcken. @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries

Congratulations to past Cabell First Novelist Award winner Angela Flournoy, who was recently longlisted for the National Book Award for her second novel, The Wilderness! @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries

We're excited to announce that Barbara Epler, President at @NewDirections Publishing and Anne de Marcken's editor, will be joining us for this year's Cabell First Novelist Award Night! Photo by Nina Subin. @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries

Last night's Levis Reading Prize event was excellent! Thank you Weijia Pan for the wonderful reading! @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries

Don't forget: VCU's Levis Reading Prize event is at 7 p.m. on Thursday, September 25. Winner Weijia Pan will read from his beautiful poetry collection, "Motherlands." Hope to see you there! english.vcu.edu/events/visitin… @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries

Send us your debuts! Debut novels traditionally published in the 2025 calendar year are eligible. Submissions close Dec 30th, 2025. 🔗 firstnovelist.vcu.edu/submit-a-novel/ @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries

Weijia Pan is the winner of this year's Levis Reading Prize! Richmond locals, mark your calendars: Weijia Pan will be here to give a reading on Sept 25th at 7pm in Cabell Library. Read more: news.vcu.edu/article/2025/0… @VCUCHS @VCUEnglish @VCULibraries