2023 Kirkus Prize Finalists Announced
The finalists for the 2023 Kirkus Prize are out. The Kirkus Prize, in its 10th year, is one of the richest literary awards in the world and grants a prize of $50,000 every year to authors for works of fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature.
This year’s finalists were books published between November 1, 2022 and October 31, 2023. Each of them earned the Kirkus star — which Kirkus uses to mark “books of exceptional merit” — even before being nominated for the prize.
Tom Beer, Kirkus’ editor-in-chief, said of the finalists, “From gorgeously written and moving fiction, to deeply researched and clear-eyed nonfiction, to young readers’ literature that entertains and educates, the finalists represent the very best books that Kirkus has seen this year.”
The 2023 Kirkus Prize Finalists are:
Fiction
Witness by Jamel Brinkley
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
Nonfiction
Red Memory: The Afterlives of China’s Cultural Revolution by Tania Branigan
Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century by Jennifer Homans
How Not To Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind by Clancy Martin
How To Say Babylon: A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair
Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino” by Héctor Tobar
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey From Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo
Young Readers
Together We Swim by Valerie Bolling, illustrated by Kaylani Juanita
João by a Thread by Roger Mello, translated by Daniel Hahn
Julia and the Shark by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, illustrated by Tom de Freston
The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale by Jon Klassen
America Redux: Visual Stories From Our Dynamic History by Ariel Aberg-Riger
The Eternal Return of Clara Hart by Louise Finch
The winners will be announced in New York City’s Tribeca neighborhood on October 11 at 7 pm.
Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.
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