Tayari Jones, Pamela Colloff, and Elizabeth Acevedo are the winners of this year’s Kirkus Prizes, given annually by Kirkus Reviews to works of exceptional merit in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature.
The winners of the awards were announced Wednesday night during a ceremony at the TriBeca Rooftop in New York. The event was also livestreamed on Kirkus’ YouTube channel.
Jones won the fiction prize for Kin, about the experiences of two lifelong friends growing up motherless in Louisiana. In a citation, the prize jurors wrote, “In a powerfully compelling novel that brims with the cadences of the Black South, Jones explores the women’s diverging lives while using them as a lens to observe social injustice in language that is intimate, conversational, and musical.”
The jurors for the fiction prize were Kimberly Brock, adult book buyer at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati; Karen R. Long, a Kirkus reviewer and former manager of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards; and Kirkus fiction editor Laurie Muchnick.
Colloff took home the nonfiction award for Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast, which investigates and questions the 1987 conviction of Jim Dailey for the murder of a 14-year-old girl, Shelly Boggio. In a citation, the prize jurors praised “Colloff’s exposure of a criminal justice system that is all too happy to look the other way in cutting deals that can have devastating consequences.”
The jurors for the nonfiction prize were Bonnie Tsui, an award-winning journalist and author of On Muscle and other books; Nora Krug, a writer and former editor at the Washington Post Book World; and Kirkus nonfiction editor John McMurtrie.
The winner of the young readers’ literature prize was Elizabeth Acevedo’s Anger Is Only a Shadow, about a teenage girl’s encounter with the juvenile justice system and the mental health challenges faced by her brother. In a citation, the prize jurors wrote, “Nuanced, resonant verse paints a clear-eyed, profoundly loving portrait of a teen navigating the complexities of growing up. Acevedo’s cast of fully rounded, compassionately drawn characters will live on in readers’ hearts.”
The jurors for the young readers’ literature prize were Sarah Park Dahlen, associate professor at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a board member of the International Research Society for Children’s Literature; Leah Johnson, author of You Should See Me in a Crown and other books and the owner of Loudmouth Books in Indianapolis; and Kirkus young readers’ editors Mahnaz Dar and Laura Simeon.
The winners of the prizes were chosen from books that received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews during the eligibility period of Nov. 1, 2025 to Oct. 31, 2026. The winning authors each receive a trophy created by the London design team of Vezzini & Chen, along with a cash prize of $50,000.
In a statement, Tom Beer, editor-in-chief of Kirkus, said, “Readers can rejoice over the winners of this year’s Kirkus Prize; these are remarkably accomplished works of fiction and nonfiction that nevertheless wear their accomplishments lightly. Above all, they are unforgettable books that will engage and transform all who enter their pages.”
The Kirkus Prize was first awarded in 2014. Previous winners include James McBride for The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, Adam Higginbotham for Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, and New Kid by Jerry Craft.
Mark Athitakis is a writer and reviewer in Arizona.
