At a special ceremony at the new Central Library in Austin, Texas, Kirkus Reviews, the nation’s leading journal of prepublication book reviews, announced the winners of the fifth 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.

2018 Winners

FICTION:
SEVERANCE by Ling Ma (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

NONFICTION:
CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES: American Crises (and Essays) by Rebecca Solnit (Haymarket)

YOUNG READERS’ LITERATURE:
CROWN: An Ode to the Fresh Cut, by Derrick Barnes and illustrated by James C. Gordon (Bolden/Agate)

2018 Finalists

FICTION:

• HALSEY STREET by Naima Coster (Little A)
• FLORIDA by Lauren Groff (Riverhead)
• MOURNING by Eduardo Halfon (Bellevue Literary Press)
• SEVERANCE by Ling Ma (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• HEADS OF THE COLORED PEOPLE: Stories, by Nafissa Thompson-Spires (Atria/37 INK)
• TELL THE MACHINE GOODNIGHT by Katie Williams (Riverhead)

 
NONFICTION:

• AMERICAN PRISON: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment, by Shane Bauer (The Penguin Press)
• HEAVY: An American Memoir, by Kiese Laymon (Scribner)
• DOPESICK: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America, by Beth Macy (Little, Brown)
• HEARTLAND: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, by Sarah Smarsh (Scribner)
• THE ROAD TO UNFREEDOM: Russia, Europe, America, by Timothy Snyder (Tim Duggan Books/Crown)
• CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES: American Crises (and Essays) by Rebecca Solnit (Haymarket)

 
YOUNG READERS’ LITERATURE:
 
Picture Books:

• CROWN: An Ode to the Fresh Cut, by Derrick Barnes and illustrated by James C. Gordon (Bolden/Agate)
• DREAMERS by Yuyi Morales (Neal Porter/Holiday House)

Middle Grade:

• MERCI SUAREZ CHANGES GEARS by Meg Medina (Candlewick)
• HARBOR ME by Jaqueline Woodson (Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin)

Young Adult:

• THE POET X by Elizabeth Acevedo (HarperTeen)
• CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE by Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt/Macmillan)