Leave your footprint on literary history: support NORTH SUN at the National Book Awards!

Dear friends,

We were thrilled to receive the news last month that North Sun by Ethan Rutherford, which we published under our imprint A Strange Object in March of this year, was named a finalist for the 2025 National Book Award in Fiction! This is an incredible honor, underscoring the global impact of our mission to uplift groundbreaking literature from writers around the world. Deep Vellum routinely punches above its weight as an independent, nonprofit press, publishing titles that earn national and international prizes, but even still, it’s a rare honor for a debut novelist to be one of five writers up for this prestigious award.

Announcing the Fiction finalists, The New York Times highlighted these extraordinary circumstances: “The one fiction writer new to National Book Award recognition is also the finalist published by the smallest press in the group: Ethan Rutherford, a debut novelist whose book North Sun: Or, the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther was put out by Deep Vellum.”

Your support—in purchasing our books, recommending them to your friends, requesting them from your local library, showing up to events, and subscribing to our book clubs—has made this recognition possible. With this honor, however, comes significant costs. To make the most of this opportunity, we need to raise over $25,000 to cover:

  • A licensing fee to use the National Book Award Finalist logo in our marketing and on the book’s cover.

  • Travel and accommodation for Ethan Rutherford to attend the finalist reading and ceremony in New York City this November.

  • Attendance at the National Book Award ceremony dinner for Ethan, his guests, and members of our team.

  • A major reprint of North Sun with the National Book Award Finalist seal to support its ongoing success.

We need your support to make this happen! While $25,000 is a modest amount for the “Big Five” publishing houses, it’s a significant cost for Deep Vellum as a nonprofit publisher. With limited resources, it's incredible what Deep Vellum has achieved. We couldn’t do it without you.

DONATE

With every tax-deductible donation, you can help us meet these essential costs and ensure this remarkable book reaches even more readers. As a special perk, donors will be recognized as sponsors in the reprinted edition of North Sun with the National Book Award seal, forever memorializing your support as part of our mission.

Your support goes beyond this book, ensuring Deep Vellum’s continued growth and sustainability. Every dollar you invest helps us generate future book sales, amplifies the voices of diverse authors, and propels us to stand alongside the largest publishers solely on the strength of our writers. From our very first recognition from the National Book Foundation last year, when The Villain’s Dance was named a Finalist for the 2024 National Book Award in Translation, to being the only press of our scale to have two titles—TERROR COUNTER and North Sun—honored in the 2025 National Book Award Longlists in Poetry and Fiction, to this moment with North Sun, Deep Vellum’s unique mission and vision is shaking up the literary landscape.

We need your help to keep this momentum going at this pivotal moment. Your donation will enable North Sun to reach its full potential and expand our audience while keeping Deep Vellum’s transformative titles in print.

Thank you for believing in Deep Vellum’s mission and for helping us continue this incredible journey. Competing on the national stage is no small feat for an indie publisher, and your unwavering support makes it possible.

donate

Please make your tax-deductible gift pledge by November 17 to ensure your name is included in the reprinting. Feel free to contact Katy Lemieux (katy@deepvellum.org) if you'd like to discuss recurring monthly payments for your gift.

WIll Evans