North Sun by Ethan Rutherford Wins the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE —

We are thrilled to announce that North Sun; Or, the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther by Ethan Rutherford—published by A Strange Object, an imprint of Deep Vellum—has won the 2026  Rosenthal Family Foundation Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This prestigious award comes with a prize of $10,000 and is granted yearly to “an exceptional novel published in the preceding year.” 

To date, North Sun has been also been named a Finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, longlisted for both the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and named a Best Book of 2025 by Barack Obama, Vanity Fair, The Strategist, The Independent Book Review, Literary Hub, and The Globe & Mail. 

Founded in 1898, the American Academy of Arts and Letters represents the highest standards of artistic achievement in this country, and its community of members are among the leading contemporary architects, visual artists, writers, and composers. Arts and Letters honors creative accomplishment through the election of members, the conferment of awards, and presenting public exhibitions and interdisciplinary programs at its historic buildings in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. 

The Literature awards will be presented alongside the Architecture, Art, and Music awards at the American Academy for Arts and Letters’s annual Ceremonial in May, where Ethan Rutherford will join fellow honorees including Frederick Seidel, Joan Silber, Caleb Crain, Jane Hirshfield, Ishion Hutchinson, Weijia Pan, and others.

We at Deep Vellum and A Strange Object are delighted to congratulate Ethan Rutherford on the continued success and recognition of North Sun by readers, publications, and prize-giving bodies throughout the English-speaking world.