At a special ceremony in the penthouse of the Four Seasons Residences in Austin, Texas, Kirkus Reviews, the nation’s leading journal of prepublication book reviews, announced the winners of the fourth annual Kirkus Prize in the categories of fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature.

The Kirkus Prize was created in 2014 to celebrate the discerning, thoughtful criticism that Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large since it was founded in 1933. For more information about Kirkus Reviews and the Kirkus Prize, please click here.

2017 Winners

FICTION:
WHAT IT MEANS WHEN A MAN FALLS FROM THE SKY: Stories, by Lesley Nneka Arimah (Riverhead)

NONFICTION:
THE GULF: The Making of an American Sea, by Jack E. Davis (Liveright)

YOUNG READERS’ LITERATURE:
THE MARROW THIEVES by Cherie Dimaline (DCB)

2017 Finalists

FICTION:

• WHAT IT MEANS WHEN A MAN FALLS FROM THE SKY: Stories, by Lesley Nneka Arimah (Riverhead)
• EXIT WEST by Mohsin Hamid (Riverhead)
• WHITE TEARS by Hari Kunzru (Knopf)
• THE NINTH HOUR by Alice McDermott (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES: Stories, by Carmen Maria Machado (Graywolf)
• SING, UNBURIED, SING by Jesmyn Ward (Scribner)

 
NONFICTION:

• THE GULF: The Making of an American Sea, by Jack E. Davis (Liveright)
• 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 from, by Edward Dolnick (Basic)
• PRIESTDADDY: A Memoir, by Patricia Lockwood (Riverhead)
• TELL ME HOW IT ENDS: An Essay in 40 Questions, by Valeria Luiselli (Coffee House)
• THE COOKING GENE: A Journey Through African-American Culinary History in the Old South, by Michael Twitty (Amistad)
• HENRY DAVID THOREAU: A Life, by Laura Dassow Walls (University of Chicago)

 
YOUNG READERS’ LITERATURE:
 
Picture Books:

• WALK WITH ME by Jairo Buitrago, illustrated by Rafael Yockteng and translated by Elisa Amado (Groundwood)
• ME TALL, YOU SMALL by Lilli L’Arronge and translated by Madeleine Stratford (Owlkids)

Middle Grade:

• BRONZE AND SUNFLOWER by Cao Wenxuan, translated by Helen Wang and illustrated by Meilo So (Candlewick)
• IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THIS by Karen English (Clarion)

Young Adult:

• THE MARROW THIEVES by Cherie Dimaline (DCB)
• THE HATE U GIVE by Angie Thomas (Balzer + Bray)