Library to host livestream and party for Aspen Words Literary Prize

The Pitkin County Library will host a free livestream viewing party for the Aspen Words Literary Prize awards ceremony on April 21, reviving the popular event for its first iteration since a pre-pandemic gathering in 2019.

Aspen Words will honor its nominees and winner in a ceremony at the Morgan Library in New York, also for the first time since 2019. The $35,000 prize honors a work of fiction that illuminates vital contemporary issues. The finalists, announced in February, are “The Arsonists’ City” by Hala Alyan; “The Final Revival of Opal and Nev” by Dawnie Walton; “The Five Wounds” by Kirstin Valdez Quade; “What Storm, What Thunder” by Myriam J.A. Chancy; and “What Strange Paradise” by Omar El Akkad.

The local library viewing party will begin at 4 p.m. with the livestream starting at 4:30 p.m. It includes a discussion among the finalists moderated by NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly and the announcement of the winner.

Attendees can also sign up for a free copy of the winning book, which will be subject of the fourth annual Community Read, a partnership between the Pitkin County Library and Aspen Words, and will receive a one-month Audible Promotional Gift Membership.

More info at pitcolib.org.