Congratulations to the 2023 Kirkus Prize finalists

Congratulations to the finalists for the 2023 Kirkus Prize!

One book each from the fiction, nonfiction, and young readers' literature categories will earn its author $50,000 in October.

This year, Kirkus evaluated nearly 1,500 books to generate the following list of award finalists: 

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' literature 

• Together We Swim, written by Valerie Bolling and illustrated by Kaylani Juanita

• João by a Thread, written by Roger Mello and translated by Daniel Hahn

• Julia and the Shark, written by Kiran Millwood Hargrave and 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