2020 First Draft Reading Challenge

Hey, friends! I am excited to introduce, for the first time ever, the…

First Draft Reading Challenge for 2020!

This list of 20 reading goals for 2020 reflects how I want to read over the next year, and I hope you’ll join me. Download a PDF of the challenge here (for Instagram, Instagram stories, or Twitter), and update your progress on social media — be sure to tag @FirstDraftPod and use #FirstDraftReadingChallenge !

The 20 challenges are:

• A non-fiction and fiction account of the same event or era (counts as two!)

  • Examples: Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair That Defined a First Lady by Susan Quinn and White Houses: A Novel by Amy Bloom ; or, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson and This is the Rope: A Story From the Great Migration by Jacqueline Woodson and illustrated by James Ransome

• A winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction (list here):

  • Examples: The Overstory by Richard Powers (winner, 2019); There, There by Tommy Orange (honor, 2019); Billy Bathgate: A Novel by E. L. Doctorow (honor, 1990)

• A collection of comics:

  • Examples: The Chickens are Restless (The Far Side Vol. 7) by Gary Larson; Weirdos From Another Planet! (Calvin and Hobbes Vol. 7) by Bill Watterson; Orlando Bloom Has Ruined Everything (Foxtrot Collection Vol. 30) by Bill Amend

• A Newberry Medal winner or honoree (list here):

  • Examples: Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina (winner, 2019); Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (honor, 2018) (listen to his First Draft interview here); Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson (honor, 2018) (listen to her First Draft interviews here and here)

• A book of essays:

  • Examples: Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom; The Witches are Coming by Lindy West; The Mind’s Eye by Oliver Sacks; Pulphead: Essays by John Jeremiah Sullivan; I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution by Emily Nussbaum; White Girls by Hilton Als

• A Coretta Scott King winner or honoree (list here):

  • Examples: A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 by Claire Hartfield (winner 2019); Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson (2019 John Steptoe Award for New Talent, 2019) (listen to her First Draft interview here)

• A book of self-help or self-improvement:

  • Examples: Better than Before by Gretchen Rubin; Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown

• A National Book Award winner for Translation (list here):

  • Examples: The Emissary by Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani (winner 2019); Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead: A Novel by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (2019 longlist)

• A book about the craft of writing:

  • Examples: Stein on Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies by Sol Stein; The Writing Life by Annie Dillard; Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

• An Odyssey Award winning or honor audiobook (list here):

  • Examples: Sadie by Courtney Summers, narrated by Rebecca Soler, Fred Berman, Dan Bittner, Gabra Zackman, and more (listen to Courtney Summers’ First Draft interviews here and here; The Poet X, written and narrated by Elizabeth Acevedos

• A book you’ve only seen the film/TV adaptation of:

  • Examples: For me, I’ve seen Shawshank Redemption, based on the novella “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” by Stephen King, included in Different Seasons; the short story that Arrival is based on the short story, “Stories of Your Life,” by Ted Chiang, included in Stories of Your Life and Others

• A Hugo Award-winning novella, novelette, or short story (list here):

  • Examples: “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington,” by Phenderson Djèlí Clark (honor, 2019); The River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey (honor, 2018)

• A Thurber Prize for American Humor winner or finalist (list here):

  • Examples: Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood (winner, 2017); Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris (finalist, 2016)

• A screenplay (some resources here and here):

  • Examples: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid by William Goldman; Moonlight by Barry Jenkins

• A LAMBDA Literary Award winner (list here):

  • Examples: Disoriental by Négar Djavadi, translated by Tina Kover (winner, 2019); Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado

• An Indie Next selection (list here):

  • Examples: A Cosmology of Monsters: A Novel by Shaun Hamill (October 2019); The Library Book by Susan Orlean (November 2018)

• A book you’ve always meant to read:

  • Examples: For me, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

• A collection of poetry:

  • Examples: The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde by Audre Lorde; Camp Notes and Other Writings by Mitsuye Yamada

• A New York Times bestseller from the Graphics and Manga list (list here):

  • Examples: Stargazing by Jen Wang (listen to her First Draft interview here); Persepolis: Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi

• A book recommended by a family member:

  • Examples: For me, Shōgun: The Epic Novel of Japan (The Asian Saga) by James Clavell