Kirkus Prize

Kirkus Prize
Awarded for	Fiction Nonfiction Young Readers' Literature
Date	Annual
Country	United States
Presented by	Kirkus Reviews
Reward(s)	US$50,000
First awarded	2014; 10 years ago (2014)
Website	www.kirkusreviews.com/prize/

The Kirkus Prize is an American literary award conferred by the book review magazine Kirkus Reviews. Established in 2014, the Kirkus Prize bestows US$150,000 annually. Three authors are awarded US$50,000 each, divided into three categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, and Young Readers' Literature.^[1] It has been described as one of the most lucrative prizes in literature.^[2][3]

Eligibility and selection

Books reviewed by Kirkus Reviews that have received the Kirkus Star are automatically eligible for the Kirkus Prize and are selected for nomination. The eligibility dates of publication for books is typically between November 1 of the previous year and October 31 of the current year, with few exceptions. Self-published books that have earned the Kirkus Star are eligible for the Kirkus Prize. However, self-published books are not eligible based on their date of publication but rather the date of publication of their online review by Kirkus Reviews. All books must first be reviewed by Kirkus Reviews to be considered.^[4]

The Prize is divided into three categories: the Kirkus Prize for Fiction, the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction and the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers' Literature. Each category is judged by a panel of three judges: a writer, a bookseller or librarian, and a Kirkus Reviews critic. The editors and staff of Kirkus Reviews evaluate each of the nominated books, conducting a first round of eliminations. The panels of judges then decide upon six finalists in each of the three categories. In the Young Readers' Literature category, the six finalists include two picture books, two middle-grade books and two teen books. The three winners are announced at a ceremony. The prize money for books with multiple authors and illustrators is divided fairly as decided by the Prize's judges and administrators.^[4]

Winners and finalists

Fiction

Year	Winners and finalists	Book	Ref.
2014	Lily King	Euphoria	[5][6]
	Siri Hustvedt	The Blazing World	[7]
	Dinaw Mengestu	All Our Names
	Brian Morton	Florence Gordon
	Bill Roorbach	The Remedy for Love
	Sarah Waters	The Paying Guests
2015	Hanya Yanagihara	A Little Life	[8][9]
	Susan Barker	The Incarnations	[8][10]
	Lucia Berlin Stephen Emerson (ed.)	A Manual for Cleaning Women
	Lauren Groff	Fates and Furies
	Valeria Luiselli Christina MacSweeney (tr.)	The Story of My Teeth
	Jim Shepard	The Book of Aron
2016	C. E. Morgan	The Sport of Kings	[11][12]
	Adam Haslett	Imagine Me Gone	[11]
	Joe McGinniss Jr.	Carousel Court
	Annie Proulx	Barkskins
	Amor Towles	A Gentleman in Moscow
	Colson Whitehead	The Underground Railroad
2017	Lesley Nneka Arimah	What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky	[13][14]
	Mohsin Hamid	Exit West	[13]
	Hari Kunzru	White Tears
	Carmen Maria Machado	Her Body and Other Parties
	Alice McDermott	The Ninth Hour
	Jesmyn Ward	Sing, Unburied, Sing
2018	Ling Ma	Severance	[15][16]
	Naima Coster	Halsey Street	[15]
	Lauren Groff	Florida
	Eduardo Halfon Lisa Dillman (tr.) Daniel Hahn (tr.)	Mourning
	Nafissa Thompson-Spires	Heads of the Colored People
	Katie Williams	Tell the Machine Goodnight
2019	Colson Whitehead	The Nickel Boys	[17][18]
	Carolina de Robertis	Cantoras	[17][19]
	Laila Lalami	The Other Americans
	Valeria Luiselli	Lost Children Archive
	Yūko Tsushima Geraldine Harcourt (tr.)	Territory of Light
	Ocean Vuong	On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
2020	Raven Leilani	Luster	[20][21]
	Tola Rotimi Abraham	Black Sunday	[20]
	Juliana Delgado Lopera	Fiebre Tropical
	Elena Ferrante Ann Goldstein (tr.)	The Lying Life of Adults
	James McBride	Deacon King Kong
	Douglas Stuart	Shuggie Bain
2021	Joy Williams	Harrow	[22][23]
	Mariana Enríquez Megan McDowell (tr.)	The Dangers of Smoking in Bed	[24]
	Honorée Fanonne Jeffers	The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
	Jocelyn Nicole Johnson	My Monticello
	Pajtim Statovci David Hackston (tr.)	Bolla
	Colson Whitehead	Harlem Shuffle
2022	Hernan Diaz	Trust	[25][26]
	Michelle de Kretser	Scary Monsters	[27]
	Arinze Ifeakandu	God's Children Are Little Broken Things
	Susan Straight	Mecca
	Yoko Tawada Margaret Mitsutani (tr.)	Scattered All Over the Earth
	Olga Tokarczuk Jennifer Croft (tr.)	The Books of Jacob
2023	James McBride	The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store	[28][29]
	Jamel Brinkley	Witness	[30][31]
	Eleanor Catton	Birnam Wood
	Kelly Link	White Cat, Black Dog
	Paul Murray	The Bee Sting
	Jesmyn Ward	Let Us Descend
2024	Percival Everett	James	[32][33]
	Jennine Capó Crucet	Say Hello to My Little Friend	[34][35]
	Louise Erdrich	The Mighty Red
	Paul Lynch	Prophet Song
	Richard Powers	Playground
	Rufi Thorpe	Margo's Got Money Troubles

Nonfiction

Year	Winners and finalists	Book	Ref.
2014	Roz Chast	Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?	[5][6]
	Leo Damrosch	Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World	[7]
	Elizabeth Kolbert	The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
	Armand Marie Leroi	The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science
	Thomas Piketty Arthur Goldhammer (tr.)	Capital in the Twenty-First Century
	Bryan Stevenson	Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
2015	Ta-Nehisi Coates	Between the World and Me	[8][9]
	John Ferling	Whirlwind: The American Revolution and the War That Won It	[8][10]
	Helen Macdonald	H is for Hawk
	Adam Tooze	The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916–1931
	Simon Winchester	Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers
	Andrea Wulf	The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World
2016	Susan Faludi	In the Darkroom	[11][12]
	Sarah Bakewell	At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails	[11]
	Matthew Desmond	Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
	Michael Eric Dyson	The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America
	Beth Macy	Truevine: Two Brothers, a Kidnapping, and a Mother's Quest: A True Story of the Jim Crow South
	J. D. Vance	Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
2017	Jack E. Davis	The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea	[13][14]
	Edward Dolnick	The Seeds of Life: From Aristotle to da Vinci, from Sharks' Teeth to Frogs' Pants, the Long and Strange Quest to Discover Where Babies Come	[13]
	Patricia Lockwood	Priestdaddy: A Memoir
	Valeria Luiselli Lizzie Davis (tr.)	Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions
	Michael W. Twitty	The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South
	Laura Walls	Henry David Thoreau: A Life
2018	Rebecca Solnit	Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises (and Essays)	[15][16]
	Shane Bauer	American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment	[15]
	Kiese Laymon	Heavy: An American Memoir
	Beth Macy	Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America
	Sarah Smarsh	Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth
	Timothy Snyder	The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America
2019	Saeed Jones	How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir	[17][18]
	Hanif Abdurraqib	Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest	[17][19]
	Naja Marie Aidt Denise Newman (tr.)	When Death Takes Something from You Give It Back: Carl's Book
	Patrick Radden Keefe	Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
	Dina Nayeri	The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You
	Rachel Louise Snyder	No Visible Bruises: What We Don't Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us
2020	Mychal Denzel Smith	Stakes Is High: Life After the American Dream	[20][21]
	Eric Jay Dolin	A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes	[20]
	Rebecca Giggs	Fathoms: The World in the Whale
	Deirdre Mask	The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power
	Aimee Nezhukumatathil Fumi Nakamura (ill.)	World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments
	Isabel Wilkerson	Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
2021	Brian Broome	Punch Me Up to the Gods: A Memoir	[22][23]
	Dara Horn	People Love Dead Jews: Reports From a Haunted Present	[24]
	Tiya Miles	All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
	Kristen Radtke	Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness
	Katherine E. Standefer	Lightning Flowers: My Journey to Uncover the Cost of Saving a Life
	Juan Villoro Alfred MacAdam (tr.)	Horizontal Vertigo: A City Called Mexico
2022	Tanaïs	In Sensorium	[25][26]
	Margaret A. Burnham	By Hands Now Known	[27][36]
	Lindsey Fitzharris	The Facemaker
	Nikole Hannah-Jones Caitlin Roper (ed.) Ilena Silverman (ed.) Jake Silverstein (ed.)	The 1619 Project
	Ann Patchett	These Precious Days
	Ed Yong	An Immense World
2023	Héctor Tobar	Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on the Meanings and Myths of "Latino"	[28][29]
	Tania Branigan	Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution	[30][31]
	Jennifer Homans	Mr. B: George Balanchine's 20th Century
	Clancy Martin	How Not to Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind
	Safiya Sinclair	How to Say Babylon: A Memoir
	Ilyon Woo	Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey From Slavery to Freedom
2024	Adam Higginbotham	Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space	[32][33]
	Steve Coll	The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the CIA, and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq	[34][35]
	Tessa Hulls	Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir
	Olivia Laing	The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise
	Shefali Luthra	Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in Post-Roe America
	Carvell Wallace	Another Word for Love: A Memoir

Young Readers' Literature

Year	Winners and finalists	Book	Ref.
2014	Kate Samworth	Aviary Wonders Inc.: Spring Catalog and Instruction Manual	[5][6]
	Cece Bell	El Deafo	[7]
	Jen Bryant Melissa Sweet (ill.)	The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus
	Jack Gantos	The Key That Swallowed Joey Pigza
	E. K. Johnston	The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim
	Don Mitchell	The Freedom Summer Murders
2015	Pam Muñoz Ryan Dinara Mirtalipova (ill.)	Echo	[8][9]
	Martha Brockenbrough	The Game of Love and Death	[8][10]
	Lauren Child	The New Small Person
	Daniel José Older	Shadowshaper
	Duncan Tonatiuh	Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras
	Jonah Winter Shane W. Evans (ill.)	Lillian's Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965
2016	Jason Reynolds	As Brave as You	[11][12]
	Sherman Alexie Yuyi Morales (ill.)	Thunder Boy Jr.	[11]
	Ashley Bryan	Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life by Ashley Bryan
	Traci Chee	The Reader
	Russell Freedman	We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler
	Meg Medina	Burn Baby Burn
2017	Cherie Dimaline	The Marrow Thieves	[13][14]
	Jairo Buitrago Rafael Yockteng (ill.) Elisa Amado (tr.)	Walk with Me	[13]
	Cao Wenxuan Helen Wang (tr.) Meilo So (ill.)	Bronze and Sunflower
	Karen English	It All Comes Down to This
	Lilli L'Arronge Madeleine Stratford (tr.)	Me Tall, You Small
	Angie Thomas	The Hate U Give
2018	Derrick Barnes Gordon C. James (ill.)	Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut	[15][16]
	Elizabeth Acevedo	The Poet X	[15]
	Tomi Adeyemi	Children of Blood and Bone
	Meg Medina	Merci Suárez Changes Gears
	Yuyi Morales	Dreamers
	Jacqueline Woodson	Harbor Me
2019	Jerry Craft Jim Callahan (color.)	New Kid	[17][18]
	Kwame Alexander Kadir Nelson (ill.)	The Undefeated	[17][19]
	Juana Felipe Herrera Lauren Castillo (ill.)	Imagine
	Angie Thomas	On the Come Up
	Juan Pablo Villalobos Rosalind Harvey (tr.)	The Other Side: Stories of Central American Teen Refugees Who Dream of Crossing the Border
	Alicia D. Williams	Genesis Begins Again
2020	Derrick Barnes Gordon C. James (ill.)	I Am Every Good Thing	[20][21]
	Elizabeth Acevedo	Clap When You Land	[20]
	Hanna Alkaf	The Girl and the Ghost
	Kimberly Brubaker Bradley	Fighting Words
	Carole Lindstrom Michaela Goade (ill.)	We Are Water Protectors
	Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds	Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
2021	Christina Soontornvat	All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team	[22][23]
	Sharon G. Flake	The Life I'm In	[24]
	Nikki Grimes	Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance
	NoNieqa Ramos Jacqueline Alcántara (ill.)	Your Mama
	Wai Chim	The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling
	Carole Boston Weatherford Floyd Cooper (ill.)	Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre
2022	Harmony Becker	Himawari House	[25][26]
	Betina Birkjær Anna Margrethe Kjærgaard (ill.) Sinéad Quirke Køngerskov (trans.)	Coffee, Rabbit, Snowdrop, Lost	[27][36]
	Rimma Onoseta	How You Grow Wings
	Niki Smith	The Golden Hour
	Anne Ursu	The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy
	Jacqueline Woodson Rafael López (ill.)	The Year We Learned to Fly
2023	Ariel Aberg-Riger	America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History	[28][29]
	Valerie Bolling Kaylani Juanita (ill.)	Together We Swim	[30][31]
	Louise Finch	The Eternal Return of Clara Hart
	Kiran Millwood Hargrave Tom de Freston (ill.)	Julia and the Shark
	Jon Klassen	The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale
	Roger Mello Daniel Hahn (trans.)	João by a Thread
2024	Kenneth M. Cadow	Gather	[32][33]
	Safia Elhillo	Bright Red Fruit	[34][35]
	Joanna Ho Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya (ill.)	We Who Produce Pearls
	Hiba Noor Khan	Safiyyah's War
	Jason Reynolds Jerome Pumphrey (ill.) Jarrett Pumphrey (ill.)	There Was a Party for Langston
	Sherri Winston	Shark Teeth

See also

• List of American literary awards

References

1. Dwyer, Colin (September 30, 2014). "Book News: First-Ever Kirkus Prize Picks 18 Finalists". NPR. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
2. Dwyer, Colin (October 25, 2018). "Here Are The Winners Of The 2018 Kirkus Prizes". NPR. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
3. Schaub, Michael (September 25, 2018). "Literary awards season heats up with $50,000 Kirkus Prize finalists". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
4. "Kirkus Prize". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
5. "2014 Kirkus Prize". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
6. "Awards: Kirkus Winners; T.S. Eliot Poetry Shortlist". Shelf Awareness. October 24, 2014. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
7. "Awards: Thurber; Maine Readers' Choice; Kirkus Prize". Shelf Awareness. October 1, 2014. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
8. "2015 Kirkus Prize". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
9. "Awards: Kirkus; Gordon Burn". Shelf Awareness. October 16, 2015. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
10. "This Year's Kirkus Young Readers Winners". Shelf Awareness. October 2, 2015. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
11. "2016 Kirkus Prize". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
12. "Awards: Kirkus, IPNE Book; Poets & Writers". Shelf Awareness. November 4, 2016. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
13. "2017 Kirkus Prize". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
14. "Awards: Kirkus, Brooklyn Public Library Winners". Shelf Awareness. November 6, 2017. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
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16. "Awards: Kirkus; Bard Fiction". Shelf Awareness. October 26, 2018. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
17. "2019 Kirkus Prize". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
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20. "2020 Kirkus Prize". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
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22. "2021 Winners". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved October 29, 2021.
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24. "Awards: Washington State Book Winners; Kirkus Finalists". Shelf Awareness. September 17, 2021. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
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26. "Awards: Kirkus Winners; Waterstones Book of the Year Shortlist". Shelf Awareness. October 28, 2022. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
27. Michnick, Laurie (September 8, 2022). "Here Are the 2022 Kirkus Prize Fiction Finalists". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved September 10, 2022.
28. Ulaby, Neda (October 11, 2023). "It's the 10th year of the Kirkus Prize. Meet the winners of a top literary award". Morning Edition. NPR. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
29. "Awards: Kirkus; Goddard Riverside Winners". Shelf Awareness. October 12, 2023. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
30. "Awards: Kirkus Finalists". Shelf Awareness. August 31, 2023. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
31. Hertzel, Laurie (August 30, 2023). "Finalists Announced for 2023 Kirkus Prizes". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
32. Schaub, Michael. "Winners of the 2024 Kirkus Prize Revealed". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved October 18, 2024.
33. "Awards: Kirkus Winners; Derek Walcott Winner". Shelf Awareness. October 21, 2024. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
34. "Awards: Kirkus Finalists". Shelf Awareness. August 28, 2024. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
35. Schaub, Michael (August 28, 2024). "Finalists for the 2024 Kirkus Prize Are Revealed". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
36. Dar, Mahnaz; Simeon, Laura (September 12, 2022). "The 2022 Kirkus Prize: Young Readers' Finalists". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved September 15, 2022.