Yale Review wins 2026 National Magazine Award for Fiction
The Yale Review, led by Professor in the Practice of English Meghan O'Rourke, has been named the winner of the 2026 National Magazine Award for Fiction.
The Yale Review, led by Professor in the Practice of English Meghan O'Rourke, has been named the winner of the 2026 National Magazine Award for Fiction.
The awards, which are among the most prestigious journalism awards for magazines and websites published in the United States, were announced on May 19 by the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME).
The Yale Review was a finalist in two award categories: General Excellence and Fiction. The ASME Award for Fiction celebrates the historic link between literary fiction and magazine journalism.
Three works of fiction were submitted as part of the Yale Review’s nomination for the Fiction category: “An Angel Passed Above Us,” by László Krasznahorkai (translated by John Batki), “The Rabbit's Foot,” by Sigrid Nunez, and “What Are We Doing, What Have We Done,” by Nathan Englander.
“Winning the ASME Award for Fiction… is a thrilling recognition of what a small, ambitious magazine can do,” editor-in-chief Meghan O’Rourke told Yale News. “The Yale Review has long believed that literary fiction is essential cultural work, not a luxury, and that conviction shows in the writers we publish: a Nobel laureate alongside two of the most distinctive American voices working today. Our editors, our student readers, and our fact-checkers have just accomplished a historic feat through sheer dedication and hard work.”
O’Rourke became the editor of the Yale Review in 2019, and the magazine won its first National Magazine Award in 2024 for General Excellence in the category of Literature, Science and Politics. In 2025, the Yale Review was a finalist in two categories: Fiction and Criticism. O'Rourke was honored alongside Adam Dalva, Clare Sestanovich, and Joanna Biggs, fiction editors for the Yale Review.
“I came to Yale with the idea of renovating and reinvigorating what had long been a prestigious journal but needed a 21st century update,” O’Rourke told Yale News upon winning in 2024. “At the time I made a five-year plan, and I will tell you that the last item in that plan was that I hoped to receive a nomination for General Excellence at the National Magazine Awards.”