The 2025 Book Awards Roundup

Who won this year's biggest literary prizes?

As the year draws to a close, we enjoy putting together a roundup of some of the recipients of literature's most distinguished awards and honors. Read on to get acquainted with some of 2025's most celebrated books.

The Pulitzer Prize

Since 1917, this award has gone to outstanding work in the areas of journalism, literature, and music. This year's winning books include:

Fiction

James by Percival Everett

Building upon the narrative set pieces from Twain's beloved classic, this brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Huckleberry Finn is both harrowing and darkly humorous. Told from the enslaved Jim's point of view, the novel is in development as a feature film to be produced by Steven Spielberg.

History

Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War by Edda L. Fields-Black

Based on original documents and written by a descendant of one of the participants, this richly-textured account tells the story of the Combahee River Raid, one of Harriet Tubman's most extraordinary accomplishments. The daring operation brought 756 enslaved people to freedom in a single day.

Native Nations: A Millennium in North America by Kathleen DuVal

Long before the colonization of North America, Indigenous Americans built diverse civilizations and adapted to a changing world in ways that reverberated globally. This rich historical account shows how the sovereignty and influence of Native peoples has remained a constant and will continue far into the future.

Biography

Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life by Jason Roberts

Carl Linnaeus and Georges-Louis de Buffon were 18th century contemporaries who devoted their lives to identifying and describing nature’s secrets. This epic, extraordinary account explores their intertwined lives and legacies, tracing an arc of discovery that extends across three centuries into the present day.

Memoir

Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls

In her acclaimed graphic memoir debut, the author traces the reverberations of Chinese history across three generations of women in her family. This powerful legacy begins with her grandmother, Sun Yi, a Shanghai journalist swept up by the turmoil of the 1949 Communist victory.

Poetry

New and Selected Poems by Marie Howe

Howe's poetry transforms penetrating observations of everyday life into sacred, humane miracles. This essential volume draws from decades of work mining the day-to-day modern experience for evidence of our shared loneliness, mortality and holiness.

General Nonfiction

To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement by Benjamin Nathans

Beginning in the 1960s, the Soviet Union was unexpectedly confronted by a dissident movement that captured the world's imagination. This prodigiously researched volume provides a definitive history of the remarkable group of people who helped change the twentieth century.

National Book Award

This prestigious prize recognizes an outstanding work of literary fiction by a U.S. citizen.

Fiction

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine

Set in Lebanon, this tragicomic saga centers on family, memory, and the unbreakable attachment of a son and his mother. Told in Raja's irresistible and wickedly funny voice, the novel spans six decades of a singular life. Above all, it's a wildly unique and sparkling celebration of love.

Nonfiction

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad

From an award-winning novelist and journalist comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in a West that betrays its fundamental values. It is a brilliant articulation of the divide we are watching all over the United States, in family rooms, on college campuses, on city streets, and beyond.

Poetry

The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems by Patricia Smith

This essential volume gathers, for the first time, the finest work from across Smith's decorated career. With careful yet vaulting movement, these poems traverse the redeeming landscape of pain, confront the frightening revelations of history, and disclose the joyous possibilities of the future.

Translated Literature

We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara

Based on the life of Antonio de Erauso, a real figure of the Spanish conquest, this rich historical novel is a masterful subversion of Latin American history with a trans character at its center, finding in the rainforest a magical, surreal space where transformation is not only possible but necessary.

Young People's Literature

The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story by Daniel Neyeri

Against the backdrop of World War II comes this page-turning hidden history about Babak, an Iranian orphan boy and his little sister. Fearing that they will be separated after their father's death, the siblings devise a plan to take up their father's quest trekking across the mountains to teach the nomads.

National Book Critics Circle Award Winners

This prestigious prize recognizes an outstanding work of literary fiction by a U.S. citizen.

Fiction

My Friends by Hisham Matar

One evening, as a young boy growing up in Benghazi, Khaled hears a bizarre short story read aloud on the radio and has the sense that his life has been changed forever. The power of those words eventually propels Khaled on a journey that will take him far from home.

Nonfiction

Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham

On January 28, 1986, just seventy-three seconds into flight, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all seven people on board. This masterful blend of human drama and science identifies a turning point in history—and brings to life the complex and astonishing story.

Biography

Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar by Cynthia Carr

Growing up on Long Island, lonely and quiet and queer, Candy Darling was enchanted by Hollywood starlets like Kim Novak. Brimming with all the ?zz and wildness of New York in the 1960s and '70s, this is the ?rst biography of the Warhol superstar—an unintentional pioneer who became a transgender icon.

Autobiography

Patriot: A Memoir by Alexei Navalny

Navalny began writing this book shortly after his near-fatal poisoning in 2020. It is the full story of his life: his youth, his call to activism, his marriage and family, his commitment to challenging a world super-power determined to silence him, and his total conviction that change will come.

Poetry

Wrong Norma by Anne Carson

Published here in a stunning edition with images created by the author, this collection of twenty-five startling poetic prose pieces explores a range of diverse topics like (in Carson's own words), "Joseph Conrad, Guantánamo, Flaubert, snow, poverty, Roget's Thesaurus, my Dad, Saturday night."

Booker Prize

Awarded for the best original novel written in the English language and published in the U.K.

Flesh by David Szalay

This insightful novel chronicles a man at odds with himself. Shadowed by the specter of past tragedy and the apathy of modernity, the tension between István and all that alienates him hurtles forward until sudden tragedy again throws life as he knows it into jeopardy.

International Booker Prize

Awarded for an international book translated to English for publication in the U.K.

Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq

Along with being the first collection of short stories honored, this winning volume is also the first to be translated from Kannada. Praised for their dry and gentle humor, these twelve portraits of family and community capture the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India.

Women's Prize for Fiction

Awarded to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English and published in the United States.

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

It is 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Living alone in her late mother's country home, Isabel's life is led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva, leaving her at Isabel’s doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season.

PEN/Faulkner Award

Awarded to the author of the year's best work of fiction by a living American citizen.

Small Rain by Garth Greenwell

A poet's life is turned inside out by a sudden, wrenching pain. The pain brings him to his knees, and eventually to the ICU. Confined to bed, plunged into the dysfunctional American healthcare system, he struggles to understand what is happening to his body, as someone who has lived for many years in his mind.

Edgar Award

Presented by the Mystery Writers of America, honoring the best in crime and mystery fiction.

The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell

A body discovered in the River Thames hints at a scandal amidst London's high society. Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Caius Beauchamp, out for a night at the theatre, discovers another dead body. As Caius investigates these parallel cases, he must navigate an exclusive world of money, title, and power.

Nebula Award

Given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America for the best science fiction or fantasy novel.

Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell

Shesheshen is an amorphous shapeshifting monster who eats people and repurposes their organs in order to survive. After being badly injured by monster hunters, she is nursed back to health by Homily, a warm-hearted human. This cozy dark fantasy takes the shape of an unusual romance.

Hugo Award

Awarded for the best science fiction or fantasy story of 40,000 words or more published in English or translated in the prior calendar year.

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

A Holmes and Watson-style duo take the stage in this fantasy with a murder mystery twist. Book one in the Shadow of the Leviathan series mixes the charms of detective fiction with brilliant world-building to deliver a fiendishly clever mystery that's at once instantly recognizable and thrillingly new.

Bram Stoker Award

Presented by the Horror Writers Association for superior achievement in horror writing for novels.

The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste

Twenty years after the tragedy that claimed her mother and eight-year-old sister, Talitha Velkwood is drawn back to her suburban hometown where she and two childhood friends were the only ones to survive the night. Now the three young women must confront the past if they're going to have a future. 

Newbery Medal

Awarded for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature.

The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly

It's August 1999. For twelve-year-old Michael Rosario, life in Red Knot, Delaware, is as ordinary as ever—except for the looming Y2K crisis and his crush on his sixteen-year-old babysitter, Gibby. But when he befriends Ridge, a time-traveling teenager from the future, it changes the course of his life forever.

Caldecott Medal

Awarded for the most distinguished American picture book for children.

Chooch Helped by Andrea L. Rogers, illustrated by Rebecca Lee Kunz

Sissy’s younger brother, Chooch, isn’t a baby anymore. But no matter what Chooch does—even if he’s messing something up! Which is basically all the time!—their parents say he’s just “helping.” Sissy feels that Chooch can get away with anything! Also available in Spanish!

Coretta Scott King Book Award

Recognizes African-American authors and illustrators of outstanding books for children and young adults.

Author Award

Twenty-Four Seconds from Now . . . A Love Story by Jason Reynolds

In a series of moments spanning two years, seventeen-year-old Neon navigates the progression of his relationship with Aria, culminating in a case of the jitters as the two intend to take the next big step in their relationship. This YA novel gives us all the excitement and anxiety of first love from a boy's perspective. 

Illustrator Award

My Daddy Is a Cowboy illustrated by C. G. Esperanza, written by Stephanie Seales

In the early hours before dawn, a young girl and her father greet their horses and ride together through the waking city streets. As they trot along, Daddy tells cowboy stories filled with fun and community, friendship, discovery, and pride. Along the way, the child discovers that she, too, is a cowboy.

Michael L. Printz Award

For excellence in literature written for young adults.

Brownstone by Samuel Teer, illustrated by Mar Julia

Left alone with her Guatemalan father for the summer while her mom goes on a once-in-a-lifetime trip without her, Almudena struggles to adjust to this new reality by getting to know the residents of his Latin American neighborhood while helping his dad fix his broken-down brownstone—and their relationship.

Pura Belpré Award

Honoring Latinx writers and illustrators whose children's and young adult books best portray, affirm, and celebrate the Latino cultural experience. 

Children's Author Award and Youth Illustration Award

Lola by Karla Arenas Valenti, illustrated by Islenia Mil

To save her brother, who’s growing sicker by the day, 10-year-old Lola, touched by magic, enters a hidden world where she must use her wits and face her deepest fears to defeat the kingdom’s young queen who stands in the way of the cure. This simmering tale is also available in a Spanish edition.

Young Adult Author Award

Shut Up, This Is Serious by Carolina Ixta

Belén Dolores Itzel del Toro wants the normal stuff: to experience love or maybe have a boyfriend or at least just lose her virginity. But nothing is normal in East Oakland. Belén's life is brimming with messy complexities. This unforgettable YA debut is perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Erika L. Sánchez.

Awards like these help to highlight excellent reads that may otherwise not get the attention they deserve. We hope you have a chance to check out some of the exciting titles honored in 2025.

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Read more by Ashly Moore Sheldon