Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize
The Kafka Prize Winner for Fiction Published in 2025
We are thrilled to announce that this year's recipient of the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Fiction is Shoshana von Blanckensee, for the novel Girls Girls Girls (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2025)!
The author will be visiting the University of Rochester on Thursday, October 29, 2026 to read from her prize-winning novel. Join us for the reading, enjoy food and wine, and purchase a copy of the winning book.
Read more about von Blanckensee's novel here.
On behalf of this year’s Kafka Prize jury, Taylor Thomas wrote:
"Girls Girls Girls is a propulsive queer coming-of-age story set in what I’d like to think of as the heyday of lesbian culture: San Francisco in the 90’s. It’s a story that has stayed with me long after I read it, and has quickly become one that I know I’d return to, if only to soak in the nostalgia of finding oneself and the lengths you’ll go to for your first queer love."
Reading Group
The Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize Committee is hosting a reading group for this year's winning book, Girls Girls Girls by Shoshana von Blanckensee.
The reading group will be casual and open to staff, faculty, students, and community members. You do not need to attend each meeting or the entirety of meetings, where we will hold discussions of various aspects of the book. We will offer a free copy of the book to those who register (up to 25 participants), and we will offer snacks during meetings.
Please register for the reading group here so we can be sure to have a copy of the book for you.
The reading group will meet in the Humanities Center Lounge in Rush Rhees Library on:
- Friday, October 9 from 12-1
- Friday, October 23 from 12-1
- Potential lunch with author on October 29 - Details TBD
About the Kafka Prize
Since 1976, the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women's Studies and the Department of English at the University of Rochester have awarded the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for fiction by an American woman. The idea for the prize came out of the personal grief of the friends and family of a fine young editor who was killed in an automobile accident just as her career was beginning to achieve its promise of excellence. She was 30 years old, and those who knew her believed she would do much to further the causes of literature and women. Her family, her friends, and her professional associates in the publishing industry created the endowment from which the prize is bestowed, in memory of Janet Heidinger Kafka and the literary standards and personal ideals for which she stood.
Each year a substantial cash prize is awarded annually to a woman and who has written the best book-length work of prose fiction, whether novel, short stories, or experimental writing. We are particularly interested in calling attention to the work of a promising but less established writer.
The Kafka Prize selection committee
- Eileen Daly-Boas, University of Rochester Libraries
- Taylor Thomas, Archivist Books
- Rachel O'Donnell, Writing, Speaking, and Argument Program
- Chad Post, Open Letter Books
- Laura Whitebell, Writing, Speaking, and Argument Program