Book Awards

The Women's Prize was set up to highlight the very best of women's writing, whatever their subject matter. We spoke to Salma El-Wardany, one of this year's judges, about this year's winner—Virginia Evan's heartwarming epistolary novel The Correspondent—plus the five books that made it onto their fiction shortlist, all skillfully told novels that should appeal to a wide audience.

The best biographies combine original research with accessible writing and a strong narrative drive, explains the historian Roy Foster, chair of the judges for the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography. Here, he introduces us to the five "extraordinarily accomplished" books on their 2026 shortlist, including a reassessment of Austrian empress Maria Theresa and a portrait of the molecular biologist Francis Crick in the swinging 1960s.

The Nebula Awards finalists for best novel are an annual must for fantasy and sci fi fans. We asked our fantasy and sci fi editor Sylvia Bishop to give us a round-up of the seven titles in the running - a particularly hot contest this year, packed with award-winning names and fresh ideas. The winner will be announced on June 6th.

Translated fiction "expands not only our literary horizons, but also our moral and emotional imaginations," explains Troy Onyango—the writer, editor and judge for the 2026 International Booker Prize. He introduced us to the six novels that made the shortlist, including this year's "formally inventive" winner and a "razor sharp" book about a "mediocre witch."

Every year, the judges for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction make a shortlist of the best new historical novels published over the previous twelve months. We spoke to Katharine Grant, prize judge and highly acclaimed author, about the five books that made the 2026 shortlist—from a "haunting and haunted" tale of triple murder on a Scottish island to a "gloriously told" reimagining of real-life intrigue during England's Wars of the Roses.

We asked Grace Talusan—the critic, memoirist, and chair of the National Book Critics Circle autobiography committee—to talk us through their shortlist of the best new memoirs: from the "novelistic" winning book by Arundhati Roy to journalist Beth Macy's hard-hitting examination of her struggling Ohio hometown.

It's an ideal combination: literary ambition and a rollicking good plot packed with intrigue and drama. We asked deputy editor Cal Flyn to pull together a list of five Booker Prize-nominated mystery novels, from an astrologically-inspired murder mystery set in goldrush-era New Zealand to an unusually intellectual noir starring a jaded reporter in rustbelt America.

Those who love historical fiction have plenty of choice among the list of past Booker Prize-winning novels. We asked Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn to put together an overview of the Booker's past victors that will sweep you from Tudor England to 20th-century India by way of the 19th-century Australian outback.

We asked Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn to compile an overview of the memoirs that won major literary prizes in the 2025 awards season: from the posthumously-published autobiography of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to a graphic memoir that wrestles with a legacy of intergenerational trauma.

Biography can be a tricky category to keep track of—being so varied in subject matter—so we asked our deputy editor Cal Flyn to put together an overview of the new biographies that won major British or American literary prizes in 2025: from a dual biography of rival Enlightenment scientists to a "compassionate" portrayal of a troubled trans icon.