James Patterson named Virginia Evans the winner of the first James Patterson and Bookshop.org Prize on Monday, telling her in a video call that her debut novel, The Correspondent, had taken the top honor. The prize comes with $15,000. Milo Todd’s The Lilac People was named runner-up and will receive $10,000.
Patterson said, “So, you’re the winner. Yay!” Evans answered, “Well, thank you! That’s so exciting.” He added, “Congratulations to Virginia Evans on winning our James Patterson + Bookshop.org prize for 2025 debut novelists,” and said she had the support of independent booksellers behind her. The award recognizes outstanding full-length debut books published in the United States within the past 12 months, and all nominations and selections were made by indie booksellers rather than a public vote.
Evans’s novel was released in April 2025 and later spent 22 weeks on bestsellers list, a rare showing for a debut. Bookshop.org described The Correspondent as “filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived” and called it “a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person.” Patterson said he had long backed independent bookstores and emerging authors, and that creating an award to recognize both booksellers and books was “a no-brainer” for him.
The longlist included The Hollow Half, When the Tides Held the Moon, Aftertaste, It’s Different This Time, The Nature of Pain, My Oceans, The Slip, My Mother’s Boyfriends and The Lilac People. Patterson said the process began with “a couple hundred books” and was narrowed by booksellers to “five or so” finalists, underscoring that the real gatekeepers for the prize were the people working behind indie counters. That is also what makes the result matter: the winner was not chosen by readers at large, but by the booksellers who decide which debut voices get noticed in the first place.
For Evans, the award is an endorsement of a book that has already traveled well beyond the normal reach of a first novel. For Patterson, it is a test case for whether a prize built around indie booksellers can shape which debut authors break through next. The next question is how quickly the award becomes a fixture, and whether the booksellers who chose this winner will keep steering the prize in the years ahead.
