New York no Samurai is popular fiction that places samurai-like conduct and modern isolation against the background of a foreign metropolis. As an All Yomimono newcomer-winning work, it is notable for relocating the mood of period fiction into an overseas urban setting.

ニューヨークのサムライ presents 楢山芙二夫's work as an award-recognized title.

Boshin Gozeuta is historical fiction linking the memory left after the Boshin War with voices carried through the songs of blind itinerant women performers. It treats the pain of the defeated with the texture of oral storytelling and shows the force of its subject as a newcomer-prize work.

戊辰瞽女唄 presents 相沢武夫's work as an award-recognized title.