Costa Book Awards 2016: Complete list of winners

The 2016 Costa Book Awards celebrated an eclectic mix of storytelling talent, honoring six writers whose work spanned intimate family memoirs to sweeping historical fiction. Among the winners were some truly distinctive voices: Alice Oswald’s meditative poetry collection Falling Awake, Brian Conaghan’s emotionally charged young adult novel The Bombs That Brought Us Together, and Sebastian Barry’s haunting Days Without End, which took the top Novel prize. The Costa Book Awards, long regarded as one of the UK and Ireland’s most prestigious literary honors, continued its tradition of recognizing excellence across multiple categories, from debut authors to established masters of their craft.

What made this year’s winners particularly striking was their thematic range and stylistic boldness. Francis Spufford’s debut novel Golden Hill proved that first-time novelists could command attention with inventive historical storytelling, while Keggie Carew’s Dadland offered a raw, unconventional take on biography by blending personal narrative with her father’s dementia diagnosis. Even the short story winner, Jess Kidd’s Dirty Little Fishes, brought darkly comic energy to its category. Together, these six titles represented the kind of literary ambition and variety that have made the Costa Book Awards a reliable bellwether for readers seeking their next meaningful read.

Below, you’ll find the complete breakdown of all the 2016 winners across each category:

Biography

• Dadland: A Journey into Uncharted Territory by Keggie Carew

Children’s Book

• The Bombs That Brought Us Together by Brian Conaghan

First Novel

• Golden Hill by Francis Spufford

Novel

• Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

Poetry

• Falling Awake by Alice Oswald

Short Story

• Dirty Little Fishes by Jess Kidd