The AIR MAIL Tom Wolfe Literary Prizes, Presented by Montblanc

The AIR MAIL Tom Wolfe Prizes for Fiction and Reportage were born last year out of a desire to honor two promising authors writing in the tradition of the literary titan, whose ability to diagnose society’s ailments with a combination of precision and flair ushered in the New Journalism era. The inaugural prizes were awarded to Italian writer Vincenzo Latronico, the author of Perfection, for fiction, and American writer Meghan Daum, the author of The Catastrophe Hour, for reportage.

Over the course of our ongoing search for the winners of the second annual Tom Wolfe Prizes, we found more than a few writers who’ve taken up Wolfe’s mantle. From the field of reportage, they have chronicled Nigeria’s romance-scam economy, Silicon Valley’s training ground, the modern masculinity crisis, the modern marriage crisis, and psychedelic toads. In fiction, they are no less attuned to the absurdities of the present, taking on 21st-century capitalism, the anxieties of immigrant communities, the false Bohemia of downtown New York, and tech-bro culture.

Our judges will ultimately select two of these writers to take home the prizes in October, but in the meantime, we invite AIR MAIL readers to explore the work of the 12 finalists below.

The prizes are presented by Montblanc, the maker of Wolfe’s preferred writing implement, the Montblanc Meisterstück pen. And they are brought to life with the help of the master calligrapher Bernard Maisner. Each prize is accompanied by a $10,000 honorarium to put toward furthering the writers’ craft.

Sarah Anderson

Sarah Anderson is a writer based in Gainesville, Florida. Her satirical debut novel Fallow follows a young woman who becomes the first in-house surrogate at a large corporation called The Company.

Harriet Clark

Harriet Clark, the daughter of a Weather Underground member, tells the story of a young girl who visits her mother each weekend in a hilltop prison in her debut novel, The Hill.

Anika Jade Levy

Anika Jade Levy is the founding editor of Forever magazine and the author of Flat Earth, a deadpan critique of New York’s downtown art scene.

Patmeena Sabit

Patmeena Sabit is the author of Good People, a debut novel about a striving Afghani family in Virginia who find themselves at the center of a tragic crime.

Alexander Starritt

Alexander Starritt is a Scottish-German entrepreneur and the author of Drayton and Mackenzie, a novel about two Oxford grads-turned-McKinsey consultants who start an energy business.

Djamel White

Djamel White is an Irish writer and editor. His debut novel, All Them Dogs, a crime noir set in Dublin, was longlisted for the Booker Prize.

Theo Baker

In 2023, Theo Baker became the youngest-ever recipient of the George Polk Award for his investigative reporting at The Stanford Daily. His first book, How to Rule the World, takes on the school’s entanglement with Big Tech.

Carlos Barragán

Carlos Barragán is a Madrid-based reporter for The New York Times and the author of The Yahoo Boys, an immersive investigation into the lives of four romance scam artists in Lagos.

Edward Chisolm

Edward Chisolm is the author of the 2022 memoir A Waiter in Paris. His forthcoming book, A Murder in Paris ‘68, is a true-crime investigation into the murder of Alain Delon’s bodyguard.

Kimon de Greef

Kimon de Greef is a South African journalist. The Ego Trip expands upon his 2022 profile for The New Yorker of a Mexican proselytizer of psychedelic toads.

Sarah Hepola

Sarah Hepola is the author of the 2015 memoir Blackout and a staff writer at the Dallas Morning News. In The Only Thing There Is to Want, she examines modern romance and its myths through the lens of three past relationships.

Jon Ronson

Jon Ronson is a Welsh-American journalist and the author of several books on such subjects as psychopathy, extremism, and cancel culture. His latest, The Castle, is an unconventional investigation into the masculinity crisis.

Julia Vitale

Julia Vitale is the Editor of AIR MAIL. Alongside AIR MAIL founders Graydon Carter and Alessandra Stanley, she launched the Tom Wolfe Prizes for Fiction & Reportage in 2025. She lives in New York.

Alexandra Wolfe

Alexandra Wolfe, the daughter of Tom Wolfe, is a former W.S.J. staff writer and the author of the 2017 book Valley of the Gods. Currently a freelance journalist, she lives in New York.

Emily Ratajkowski

Emily Ratajkowski is a model, actress, writer, and the author of the 2021 essay collection My Body. She lives in New York.

Emma Roberts

With Karah Preiss, Emma Roberts is the Co-Founder of Belletrist, as well as an actress (known for her roles in Palo Alto and American Horror Story) and avid rare-book collector. She lives in Los Angeles.

Sloane Crosley

Sloane Crosley is the author of seven books, including the memoir Grief Is for People, the novel Cult Classic, and several essay collections. She lives in New York.

Karah Preiss

With Emma Roberts, Karah Preiss is the Co-Founder of Belletrist, the online reading community and production company behind the hit show Tell Me Lies. She lives in New York.

Vincenzo Latronico

Vincenzo Latronico is an Italian author and translator. His novel, Perfection, won him the inaugural AIR MAIL Tom Wolfe Prize for Fiction. He lives in Milan.

Meghan Daum

Meghan Daum is an essayist and the author of seven books, including The Catastrophe Hour. She was the recipient of the winner of the inaugural AIR MAIL Tom Wolfe Prize for Reportage. She lives in Los Angeles.

Christian Lorentzen

Christian Lorentzen is a critic for AIR MAIL, The New York Times, London Review of Books, and Harper’s Magazine, and the co-host of the podcast Quality Lit Game. He lives in Brooklyn.

Alexa Schilz

Alexa Schilz is the Director of Writing Culture & Brand Strategy at Montblanc. “This partnership stays true to Montblanc’s mission to inspire people to put pen to paper,” she says.

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