Tonight, astatine a ceremonial successful New York City, Kirkus Reviews announced the winners of the 13th yearly Kirkus Prize, which awards $50,000 to “books of exceptional merit” successful 3 categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, and Young Readers’ Literature. The winners were chosen from the excavation of books that person received a Kirkus prima implicit the past year: 3,584 fabrication titles, 2,806 nonfiction titles, and 3,936 young readers’ titles.
“Readers tin rejoice implicit the winners of this year’s Kirkus Prize; these are remarkably accomplished works of fabrication and nonfiction that nevertheless deterioration their accomplishments lightly,” said Kirkus Reviews editor-in-chief Tom Beer successful a statement. “Above all, they are unforgettable books that volition prosecute and alteration each who participate their pages.”
Here are the winners:
Fiction:
Tayari Jones, Kin
(Alfred A. Knopf)
Citation: Niecy and Annie are “cradle friends.” Born successful small-town Louisiana successful the 1950s, they stock an unhappy bond, some having mislaid their mothers. In a powerfully compelling caller that brims with the cadences of the Black South, Jones explores the women’s diverging lives portion utilizing them arsenic a lens to observe societal injustice successful connection that is intimate, conversational, and musical.
Finalists: 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)
The jurors for the 2026 Kirkus Prize successful Fiction are Kimberly Brock, big publication purchaser astatine Joseph-Beth Booksellers successful Cincinnati; Karen R. Long, a Kirkus reviewer and erstwhile manager of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards; and Kirkus fabrication exertion Laurie Muchnick.
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Nonfiction:
Pamela Colloff, Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice connected the Gulf Coast
(Knopf)
Citation: In 1987, Jim Dailey was convicted of the brutal execution of a 14-year-old girl, Shelly Boggio. However, arsenic Pamela Colloff reveals successful her taut and engrossing investigation, a scheming jailhouse snitch’s grounds was mostly liable for putting Dailey connected decease enactment for decades. Even much damning, though, is Colloff’s vulnerability of a transgression justness strategy that is each excessively blessed to look the different mode successful cutting deals that tin person devastating consequences.
Finalists: 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)
The jurors for the 2026 Kirkus Prize successful Nonfiction are Bonnie Tsui, an award-winning writer and writer of On Muscle and different books; Nora Krug, a writer and erstwhile exertion astatine the Washington Post Book World; and Kirkus nonfiction exertion John McMurtrie.
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Young Readers’ Literature:
Elizabeth Acevedo, Anger Is Only a Shadow
(Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins)
Citation: Liliana ne'er meant to get successful trouble—again—but present she’s awaiting proceedings with an ankle monitor. As her member Aldwin’s intelligence wellness deteriorates, Lil considers risking her aboriginal to question to him. Nuanced, resonant verse paints a clear-eyed, profoundly loving representation of a teen navigating the complexities of increasing up. Acevedo’s formed of afloat rounded, compassionately drawn characters volition unrecorded connected successful readers’ hearts.
Finalists: Julie Leung, illus. by Angie Kang, Navigating Night (Anne Schwartz/Random); Karthika Naïr, illus. by Joëlle Jolivet, Electric Birds of Pothakudi (Tate Publishing); Matthew Fox, The Lovely Dark (Union Square Kids); Daniel Nayeri, This Is a Door (Stonefruit Studio/Sourcebooks); Blessing Musariri, When It’s Your Turn for Midnight (Carolrhoda Lab)
The jurors for the 2026 Kirkus Prize successful Young Readers’ Literature are Sarah Park Dahlen, subordinate prof astatine the School of Information Sciences astatine the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a committee subordinate of the International Research Society for Children’s Literature; Leah Johnson, writer of You Should See Me successful a Crown and different books and the proprietor of Loudmouth Books successful Indianapolis; and Kirkus young readers’ editors Mahnaz Dar and Laura Simeon.
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