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Essie Chambers



Essie Chambers earned her MFA in creative writing from Columbia University and has received fellowships from MacDowell, Vermont Studio Center, and Baldwin for the Arts. A former film and television executive, she was a producer on the documentary Descendant, which was released by the Obamas’ Higher Ground production company and Netflix in 2022. Swift River is her debut novel.
 

Awards: B&N (2024)  see all

Genres: Literary Fiction
 
Novels
   Swift River (2024)
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Awards
2024 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize for Fiction : Swift River

Award nominations
2025 Libby Award for Debut Author of the Year (nominee) : Swift River
2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction (longlist) : Swift River


Essie Chambers recommends
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Leave Your Mess at Home (2026)
Tolani Akinola
"What a thrill to read a novel so alive. I tore through it, laughing out loud, aching for the Longe siblings as they unraveled, rooting for them like they were mine. Tolani Akinola writes family estrangement with such honesty and insight, capturing the ways we push away the people we love to protect ourselves, yet still reach back for them. Leave Your Mess at Home is vibrant, incisive, and hilarious, a truly remarkable debut."
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If I Ruled the World (2026)
Amy DuBois Barnett
"Amy DuBois Barnett's debut sparkles with drama, scandal, and '90s New York energy. She powerfully captures a pressure-cooker moment of transition-the messy work of growing past bad choices, squaring ambition with integrity, and holding on to your ride-or-dies. It's a pitch-perfect depiction of a world I didn't want to leave."
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Like Family (2025)
Erin O White
"Moving and funny and big-hearted, Like Family is a gorgeous debut."

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