Living Canon

Kirkus Prize 2019: Complete list of winners

The 2019 Kirkus Prize winners showcase the year’s most compelling voices across fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature. Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys took the fiction prize, a devastating account of friendship and survival in a brutal reform school that solidified Whitehead’s place as one of contemporary fiction’s most important chroniclers of American injustice. In nonfiction, Saeed Jones’s How We Fight for Our Lives won recognition for its unflinching memoir exploring identity, desire, and belonging—a deeply personal narrative that resonates far beyond the individual experience. The young readers’ literature award went to Jerry Craft’s New Kid, a graphic novel that brings humor, heart, and cultural specificity to the middle-grade experience of navigating a prestigious private school as a Black student.

The Kirkus Prize, one of the most prestigious honors in American publishing, has long championed literary excellence across all categories, and this year’s selections reflect both the diversity of contemporary voices and the breadth of what “literature” encompasses in the current landscape. These awards matter because Kirkus Prize winners often become essential reading—books that define their moment and shape conversations about race, identity, and human connection. Whether you’re a devoted awards-watcher or simply looking for your next great read, the 2019 Kirkus Prize winners deliver exactly what readers seek: unforgettable stories told with precision and power.

Fiction

Nonfiction

Young Readers’ Literature

  • New Kid by Jerry CraftJim Callahan(color.)