Maggie Millner named ‘5 Under 35’ honoree by National Book Foundation
Millner, Lecturer in English and Senior Editor at The Yale Review, was recognized for her debut book, Couplets: A Love Story.
Maggie Millner, Lecturer in English and Senior Editor at The Yale Review, was named a “5 Under 35” honoree by the National Book Foundation on April 2, 2025.
The annual honors recognize five fiction writers under the age of 35 whose debut work “promises to leave a lasting impression on the literary landscape.” To be recognized, honorees must have published their first and only work of fiction within the last five years.
Millner was honored for her debut book Couplets: A Love Story, a “story in verse” that the National Book Awards called “a propulsive and restless narrative told in rhyming couplets and vignettes, of a 20-something woman exploring her sexuality, and asking what it means to want and to be wanted.”
Couplets has earned numerous accolades: it was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, one of The Atlantic’s ten best books of 2023, and a finalist for the LA Times Book Award in Poetry and the Lambda Literary Award for lesbian poetry.
Millner and the other four honorees were each handpicked by previous honorees of the National Book Foundation, and will be celebrated at a ceremony in Brooklyn, NY on June 4.
“5 Under 35 proudly supports talented writers at the start of their literary careers, and our deepest gratitude goes to our expert selectors for identifying five brilliant new voices in fiction,” said Ruth Dickey, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation.
“Across two decades, 5 Under 35 honorees have gone on to be recognized by some of the most prestigious literary prizes, including the National Book Awards, and we’ve witnessed those honorees then mentor the next generation of writers—a cycle of recognition, community, and celebration that connects more and more readers with exceptional fiction.”