Last night at the Deadline hosted celebration of the Black List 20th anniversary, founder Franklin Leonard told attendees that there was more to come.
Now that more to come is here.
Just one day after the Travis Braun-topped 20th anniversary list came out, the Black List Wednesday revealed the inaugural Adaptation List. The selection highlights 61 novels published since the first list came out in 2005 that are primed to be made into big screen and small screen projects.
“There was only one real way to celebrate twenty years of annual Black Lists, make another list that celebrates writers and in so doing makes it more likely that great film and television gets made,” Black List chief Leonard said Wednesday of the list that includes books by Jennifer Egan, Jeffrey Eugenides, and N. K. Jemisin (see the full list below). “Once it was clear that we were going to expand into fiction in September, the Adaptation List was an obvious way to mark the occasion. Selfishly, I also wanted a fiction reading list for 2025. Here’s hoping others do the same.”
The latest evolution and expansion of the Black List’s scope and depth to spotlight scribes’ originality and talent, the Adaptation List surveyed 84 publishing industry editors and literary agent.
Having added the wide-ranging Diversity Lists in recent years, the Black List stepped into the publishing world earlier this year with the launch of a fiction list with manuscript submissions and connections to the world of adaptation for TV and film. Led by led by Randy Winston, the fiction initiative also has the Unpublished Novel Award, that will hand out $10,000 to writers in seven genres, and partnerships with Simon Kinberg’s Genre Films and Onyx Collective that will award $25,000, as a part of the package.
Now the Black List’s publishing package has gone even larger.
Check out the Deadline x The 2024 Black List 20th Celebration photo gallery here
Take a look below at the full range of novels on the Adaptation List in alphabetical order. Also, stay tuned for more coverage of the Deadline x The 2024 Black List 20th Celebration from last night at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel.
Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
All Fours by Miranda July
All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby
American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Ask Again Yes by Mary Beth Keane
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
Beyond That, The Sea by Laura Spence Ash
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
Blackwater Rising by Attica Locke
The Boy With a Bird in His Chest by Emme Lund
The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzalez James
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Counterfeit by Kirsten Chen
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Exit West by Moshin Hamid
The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly
The Guest by Emma Cline
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara
James by Percival Everret
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Love Songs of W. E. B. DuBois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Lush Life by Richard Price
Luster by Raven Leilani
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff
My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Night Film by Marisha Pessl
North Woods by Daniel Mason
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donogue
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Trust by Hernan Diaz
Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti
The Verifiers by Jane Pek
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
When We Were Sisters by Fatimah Asghar
Your Face in Mine by Jess Row
Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha
