McLaughlin-Esstman-Stearns First Novel Prize
Each year, The Writer’s Center awards $3,000 to the author of an exceptional first novel published in the previous calendar year. Conceived and funded by former board member Neal P. Gillen, the McLaughlin-Esstman-Stearns First Novel Prize honors three dedicated writers and members of The Writer’s Center faculty—the late Ann McLaughlin, Barbara Esstman, and Lynn Stearns—each of whom have nourished and inspired students and fellow writers.
Congratulations to Jade Song, author of Chlorine and winner of the 2024 McLaughlin-Esstman-Stearns First Novel Prize!
Jade Song is a writer, art director, and artist. Their debut novel Chlorine was published by William Morrow (US) and Footnote Press (UK) and will be translated into French, Chinese, Turkish, and other languages. An American Library Association Alex Award winner, Chlorine was selected as a New York Times Editor’s Choice, lauded as “visionary and disturbing,” and listed as a must read book by Buzzfeed, Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair, and other publications.
Song was selected for the 2024 Black List Writers Lab for her adapted screenplay of Chlorine. Their second novel, I Love You Don’t Die, and debut short story collection, Ox Ghost Snake Demon, are forthcoming from William Morrow in early 2026 and 2027.
About the Novel
In the vein of The Pisces and The Vegetarian, Chlorine is a debut novel that blurs the line between a literary coming-of-age narrative and a dark unsettling horror tale, told from an adult perspective on the trials and tribulations of growing up in a society that puts pressure on young women and their bodies… a powerful, relevant novel of immigration, sapphic longing, and fierce, defiant becoming.
Ren Yu is a swimmer. Her daily life starts and ends with the pool. Her teammates are her only friends. Her coach is her guiding light. If she swims well enough, she will be scouted, get a scholarship, go to a good school. Her parents will love her. Her coach will be kind to her. She will have a good life.
But these are human concerns. These are the concerns of those confined to land, those with legs. Ren grew up on stories of creatures of the deep, of the oceans and the rivers. Creatures that called sailors to their doom. That dragged them down and drowned them. That feasted on their flesh. The creature that she’s always longed to become: the mermaid.
Ren aches to be in the water. She dreams of the scent of chlorine, the feel of it on her skin. And she will do anything she can to make a life for herself where she can be free. No matter the pain. No matter what anyone else thinks. No matter how much blood she has to spill.
Previous Winners
Shelby Van Pelt for Remarkably Bright Creatures (2023), Robert L. Shuster for To Zenzi (2022), Sion Dayson for As a River (2021 prize), Jasmine Darznik for Song of a Captive Bird (2019), Kayla Rae Whitaker for The Animators (2018), Sheila Martin for The Coney Island Book of the Dead (2017), Nadine Darling for She Came From Beyond! (2016), Bret Anthony Johnston for Remember Me Like This (2015), Raoul Wientzen for The Assembler of Parts (2014), Karen Thompson for Walker for The Age of Miracles (2013), Ismet Prcic for Shards (2012) Heidi Durrow for The Girl Who Fell From the Sky (2011). (No prize was awarded in 2020.)