This morning, Kirkus Reviews announced the 18 finalists for the 2026 Kirkus Prize, which recognizes excellence successful the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, and Young Readers’ Literature. Books are selected by a sheet of peers, editors, and different manufacture professionals.
Winners successful each 3 categories volition person $50,000 each, making the Kirkus Prize 1 of the richest yearly literate awards successful the world. Previous winners of the coveted grant see Lily King’s Euphoria, Héctor Tobar’s Our Migrant Souls, and Percival Everett’s James.
This year’s finalists were chosen from a whopping full of 8,280 eligible titles. Of the bumper crop, Kirkus Reviews editor-in-chief Tom Beer said, “This year’s slate of prize finalists takes readers astir the globe portion exploring the deepest, astir backstage recesses of the quality mind, offering profound windows onto quality experience. Each publication is beautifully written and/or illustrated, brilliantly conceived, and compulsively readable.”
Here are the finalists:
FICTION:
Tayari Jones, Kin (Knopf)
Daniyal Mueenuddin, This Is Where the Serpent Lives (Knopf)
Brenda Navarro, trans. by Megan McDowell, Eating Ashes (Liveright/Norton)
Julie Orringer, Luna, Phoenix, Queen (Knopf)
Douglas Stuart, John of John (Grove)
Colson Whitehead, Cool Machine (Doubleday)
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NONFICTION:
Pamela Colloff , Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice connected the Gulf Coast (Knopf)
Ada Ferrer, Keeper of My Kin: Memoir of an Immigrant Daughter (Scribner)
Patrick Radden Keefe, London Falling: A Mysterious Death successful a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth (Doubleday)
Loubna Mrie, Defiance: A Memoir of Awakening, Rebellion, and Survival successful Syria (Viking)
Gisèle Pelicot with Judith Perrignon, trans. by Natasha Lehrer & Ruth Diver, A Hymn to Life: Shame Has To Change Sides (Penguin Press)
Michael Pollan, A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness (Penguin Press)
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YOUNG READERS’ LITERATURE:
Picture Books
Julie Leung, illus. by Angie Kang, Navigating Night (Anne Schwartz/Random)
Karthika Naïr, illus. by Joëlle Jolivet, Electric Birds of Pothakudi (Tate Publishing)
Middle Grade
Matthew Fox, The Lovely Dark (Union Square Kids)
Daniel Nayeri, This Is a Door (Stonefruit Studio/Sourcebooks)
Young Adult
Elizabeth Acevedo, Anger Is Only a Shadow (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins)
Blessing Musariri, When It’s Your Turn for Midnight (Carolrhoda Lab)
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The 3 winners volition beryllium announced astatine a ceremonial connected October 7, 2026. The announcement volition besides beryllium livestreamed connected Kirkus’ YouTube channel.
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