American literary award
Award
The Kirkus Prize is an American literary award conferred by the book review magazine Kirkus Reviews US$ 150,000 annually. Three authors are awarded US$ 50,000 each, divided into three categories: Fiction , Nonfiction , and Young Readers' Literature .[ 1] 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
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 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 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
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 [ 20]
Rebecca Giggs Fathoms: The World in the Whale
Deirdre Mask The Address Book
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 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 ed. )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
See also
References
^ Dwyer, Colin (September 30, 2014). "Book News: First-Ever Kirkus Prize Picks 18 Finalists" . NPR . Retrieved November 23, 2015 . ^ Dwyer, Colin (October 25, 2018). "Here Are The Winners Of The 2018 Kirkus Prizes" . NPR . Retrieved November 24, 2020 . ^ Schaub, Michael (September 25, 2018). "Literary awards season heats up with $50,000 Kirkus Prize finalists" . Los Angeles Times . Retrieved November 24, 2020 . ^ a b "Kirkus Prize" . Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved November 25, 2020 .^ a b c "2014 Kirkus Prize" . Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved November 26, 2020 .^ a b c "Awards: Kirkus Winners; T.S. Eliot Poetry Shortlist" . Shelf Awareness . Retrieved October 26, 2024 .^ a b c "Awards: Thurber; Maine Readers' Choice; Kirkus Prize" . Shelf Awareness . Retrieved October 26, 2024 .^ a b c d e f "2015 Kirkus Prize" . Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved November 26, 2020 .^ a b c "Awards: Kirkus; Gordon Burn" . Shelf Awareness . Retrieved October 26, 2024 .^ a b c "This Year's Kirkus Young Readers Winners" . Shelf Awareness . Retrieved October 26, 2024 .^ a b c d e f "2016 Kirkus Prize" . Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved November 26, 2020 .^ a b c "Awards: Kirkus, IPNE Book; Poets & Writers" . Shelf Awareness . Retrieved October 26, 2024 .^ a b c d e f "2017 Kirkus Prize" . Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved November 26, 2020 .^ a b c "Awards: Kirkus, Brooklyn Public Library Winners" . Shelf Awareness . Retrieved October 26, 2024 .^ a b c d e f "2018 Kirkus Prize" . Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved November 26, 2020 .^ a b c "Awards: Kirkus; Bard Fiction" . Shelf Awareness . Retrieved October 26, 2024 .^ a b c d e f "2019 Kirkus Prize" . Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved November 26, 2020 .^ a b c "Awards: Willie Morris, Kirkus Winners" . Shelf Awareness . Retrieved October 26, 2024 .^ a b c "Kirkus Announces the Finalists for the 2019 Kirkus" . Kirkus Reviews Archived from the original on December 22, 2023. Retrieved December 22, 2023 .^ a b c d e f "2020 Kirkus Prize" . Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved November 26, 2020 .^ a b c "Awards: WH Smith Book of the Year; Kirkus Winners" . Shelf Awareness . Retrieved October 26, 2024 .^ a b c "2021 Winners" . Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved October 29, 2021 .^ a b c "Awards: Kirkus Winners; Waterstones Book of the Year Shortlist" . Shelf Awareness . Retrieved October 26, 2024 .^ a b c "Awards: Washington State Book Winners; Kirkus Finalists" . Shelf Awareness . Retrieved October 26, 2024 .^ a b c "Hernan Diaz, Tanaïs among winners of $50,000 Kirkus Prize" . AP News . October 28, 2022.^ a b c "Awards: Kirkus Winners; Waterstones Book of the Year Shortlist" . Shelf Awareness . Retrieved October 26, 2024 .^ a b c Michnick, Laurie (September 8, 2022). "Here Are the 2022 Kirkus Prize Fiction Finalists" . Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved September 10, 2022 . ^ a b c 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 .^ a b c "Awards: Kirkus; Goddard Riverside Winners" . Shelf Awareness . Retrieved October 26, 2024 .^ a b c "Awards: Kirkus Finalists" . Shelf Awareness . Retrieved October 26, 2024 .^ a b c Hertzel, Laurie (August 30, 2023). "Finalists Announced for 2023 Kirkus Prizes" . Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved December 10, 2023 . ^ a b c Schaub, Michael. "Winners of the 2024 Kirkus Prize Revealed" . Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved October 18, 2024 . ^ a b c "Awards: Kirkus Winners; Derek Walcott Winner" . Shelf Awareness . Retrieved October 26, 2024 .^ a b c "Awards: Kirkus Finalists" . Shelf Awareness . Retrieved October 26, 2024 .^ a b c Schaub, Michael (August 28, 2024). "Finalists for the 2024 Kirkus Prize Are Revealed" . Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved October 5, 2024 . ^ a b Dar, Mahnaz; Simeon, Laura (September 12, 2022). "The 2022 Kirkus Prize: Young Readers' Finalists" . Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved September 15, 2022 .
