An Evening with the 2025 5 Under 35 Honorees
Join us for a special Miami showcase with the 2025 5 Under 35 honorees, which features readings and conversation with exceptional debut fiction authors: Stacie Shannon Denetsosie (The Missing Morningstar and Other Stories), Megan Howell (Softie), Alexander Sammartino (Last Acts), and Jemimah Wei (The Original Daughter). Moderated by Natalie Green, Director of Programs & Partnerships at the National Book Foundation.
Presented in partnership with Miami Book Fair, Books & Books, and the National Book Foundation.
Register for an Evening with the National Book Foundation 2025 5 Under 35 Honorees
Stacie Shannon Denetsosie is a citizen of the Navajo Nation. Her clans are Todích’íí’nii (Bitterwater Clan), born for Naakaii (Mexican Clan). She is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree. She is the author of The Missing Morningstar and Other Stories, a winner of a WILLA Literary Award, a Foreword INDIES Book Award, and a PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize finalist. She is a co-editor of Beyond the Glittering World: An Anthology of Indigenous Futurisms and Feminisms. Stacie received her MA from Utah State University and her MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Originally from Kayenta, Arizona, she currently resides in Northern Utah with her husband and cat.
Megan Howell is a DC-based writer and a 2025 National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree. She earned her MFA in fiction from the University of Maryland in College Park, winning both the Jack Salamanca Thesis Award and the Kwiatek Fellowship. Her work has appeared in McSweeney’s, The Nashville Review and The Establishment among other publications. Her debut short story collection Softie: Stories was recently short-listed for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize.
Alexander Sammartino’s debut novel, Last Acts, won the 2025 New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and was chosen as a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree. Sammartino was born in Rhode Island, grew up in Arizona, and now lives in Brooklyn with his wife and cat. He received his MFA in fiction from Syracuse University. His next novel, Gallo, is forthcoming from Scribner.
Jemimah Wei was born and raised in Singapore; she is now based between Singapore and the United States. She was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and a Felipe P. De Alba Fellow at Columbia University, where she earned her MFA. A recipient of awards and fellowships from Singapore’s National Arts Council, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and Writers in Paradise, she was named one of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 honorees and Narrative’s “30 Below 30” writers and is a Francine Ringold Award for New Writers honoree. Her fiction has won the William Van Dyke Short Story Prize and appears in Guernica, Narrative, and Nimrod, among other publications. For close to a decade, Wei was a host for various broadcast and digital channels, and she has written and produced short films and travel guides for Laneige, Airbnb, and Nikon. Her first novel, The Original Daughter, was published in 2025.
Moderator: Natalie Green is the Director of Programs & Partnerships at the National Book Foundation. Before joining the Foundation, Natalie was the Manager of Los Angeles Programs at PEN America. She holds a BA in English and Creative Writing from UCLA, and is a Brooklyn Book Festival Bookends committee member.
6:30 p.m. │ First Draft: A Literary Social with 5 Under 35 Honoree Jemimah Wei
Miami Book Fair presents First Draft, a series of free and informal writing events where community, craft, and rapid-fire creativity meet for monthly themed virtual salons where writers get social, share their work, and leave with great stories.
Instructor: Jemimah Wei
Jemimah Wei was born and raised in Singapore; she is now based between Singapore and the United States. She was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and a Felipe P. De Alba Fellow at Columbia University, where she earned her MFA. A recipient of awards and fellowships from Singapore’s National Arts Council, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and Writers in Paradise, she was named one of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 honorees and Narrative’s “30 Below 30” writers and is a Francine Ringold Award for New Writers honoree. Her fiction has won the William Van Dyke Short Story Prize and appears in Guernica, Narrative, and Nimrod, among other publications. For close to a decade, Wei was a host for various broadcast and digital channels, and she has written and produced short films and travel guides for Laneige, Airbnb, and Nikon. Her first novel, The Original Daughter, was published in 2025.
