Costa Book Awards 2018: Complete list of winners

The 2018 Costa Book Awards celebrated some of the year’s most compelling voices across five categories, with a particular emphasis on narratives that dig beneath the surface of human experience. Sally Rooney’s debut novel Normal People took the top prize in the Novel category, marking a remarkable year for the Irish author whose unflinching exploration of relationship dynamics would go on to define contemporary literary fiction. Meanwhile, Stuart Turton’s genre-bending debut The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle claimed the First Novel award, proving that innovative storytelling continues to captivate the Costa judges and readers alike.

Beyond fiction, the 2018 winners demonstrated the breadth of literary achievement the Costa Book Awards recognizes each year. Bart van Es’s The Cut Out Girl: A Story of War and Family, Lost and Found earned the Biography honor with its powerful account of a hidden child during the Holocaust, while Hilary McKay’s The Skylarks’ War brought young readers into the complexities of World War I. J. O. Morgan’s collection Assurances rounded out the year’s honorees in Poetry, reinforcing the awards’ commitment to recognizing excellence across genres and audiences.

The 2018 Costa Book Awards winners showcase the breadth of the prize, which celebrates British and Irish authors publishing in any genre. Below, discover more about each category winner and what made their work stand out to judges this year.

Biography

• The Cut Out Girl: A Story of War and Family, Lost and Found by Bart van Es

Children’s Book

• The Skylarks’ War by Hilary McKay

First Novel

• The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Novel

• Normal People by Sally Rooney

Poetry

• Assurances by J. O. Morgan