Book Awards
Last updated: May 21, 2025
While it's impossible to read every single new release on the book market, the judges of each year's biggest literary awards and prizes come closer than perhaps anyone else. Many of them have to read nearly 200 new titles each year in a matter of months, whittle them down to a 6-7 title shortlist, and (finally, with much difficulty) reason their way to a single winner. That's one of the many reasons why literary awards and prizes are a great way to find the best new books to read.
Book awards now also cover a variety of genres, from fiction and its subgenres (historical fiction, science fiction, romance books) to nonfiction and its many specialist areas (biography, memoir, history, business). Here's our collection of interviews with the judges of various book awards that we think are worth paying attention to, about their shortlists, year in and year out:
The Booker Prize (Fiction)
Nobel Prize (Literature)
The Baillie Gifford Prize (Nonfiction)
Wolfson Prize (History)
Walter Scott Prize (Historical fiction)
Arthur C Clarke Prize (Science fiction)
The Hugos (Science Fiction and Fantasy)
The Financial Times Book Prize (Nonfiction that's relevant to business)
The Royal Society Book Prizes (Science, both adults and children's)
The Pushkin House Prize (Nonfiction on Russia)
The Audies (Audiobooks)
Pulitzer Prize (History of the United States)
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1
On the Calculation of Volume: Book I
by Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara J. Haveland -
2
Small Boat
by Vincent Delecroix, translated by Helen Stevenson -
3
Under the Eye of the Big Bird: A Novel
by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Asa Yoneda -
4
Perfection
by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie Hughes -
5
Heart Lamp: Selected Stories
by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi -
6
A Leopard-Skin Hat
by Anne Serre, translated by Mark Hutchinson
The Best Fiction Books: The 2025 International Booker Prize, recommended by Anton Hur
The Best Fiction Books: The 2025 International Booker Prize, recommended by Anton Hur
Every year, judges for the International Booker Prize search for the best works of fiction translated into English over the previous twelve months. We asked Anton Hur, the novelist, translator and 2025 judge, to talk us through the six-book shortlist—including five novels and this year’s winner, the first short story collection ever to triumph.
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Native Nations: A Millennium in North America
by Kathleen DuVal -
Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War
by Edda L. Fields-Black -
Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life
by Jason Roberts -
To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement
by Benjamin Nathans -
Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir
by Tessa Hulls
2025 Pulitzer Prize Nonfiction Book Winners
2025 Pulitzer Prize Nonfiction Book Winners
Earlier this month, the winners of the 2025 Pulitzer Prizes, awarded annually by Columbia University in New York and founded by Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911), were announced. The prizes are awarded for a variety of categories across journalism, but also celebrate outstanding books. Below we’ve listed all the books that won in nonfiction book categories (James by Percival Everett won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction).
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1
A Thousand Threads: A Memoir
by Neneh Cherry -
2
The Story of a Heart
by Rachel Clarke -
3
Raising Hare
by Chloe Dalton -
4
Agent Zo: The Untold Story of a Fearless World War II Resistance Fighter
by Clare Mulley -
5
What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World’s Ocean
by Helen Scales -
6
Private Revolutions: Coming of Age in a New China
by Yuan Yang
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 Women’s Prize for Nonfiction, recommended by Kavita Puri
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 Women’s Prize for Nonfiction, recommended by Kavita Puri
Now in its second year, the Women’s Prize for Nonfiction aims to highlight the very best new nonfiction books written by women. We asked Kavita Puri, the journalist and chair of this year’s judging panel, to talk us through the shortlist: from a gentle lockdown animal memoir to a thrilling true story of a WW2 secret agent.
The Best Novels: The 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction, recommended by Kit de Waal
The 2025 shortlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction features a family saga about formerly rich Iranian refugees, a surprisingly funny tale of ISIS brides and a “weird” midlife crisis adventure in suburban California. We asked the bestselling novelist—chair of this year’s judging panel—to talk us through the six finalists.
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1
Black Ghosts: A Journey Into the Lives of Africans in China
by Noo Saro-Wiwa -
2
On the Shadow Tracks: A Journey through Occupied Myanmar
by Clare Hammond -
3
Slow Trains to Istanbul: ...And Back: A 4,570-Mile Adventure on 55 Rides
by Tom Chesshyre -
4
The Place of Tides
by James Rebanks -
5
Wayfarer: Love, loss and life on Britain’s ancient paths
by Phoebe Smith -
6
Wild Twin
by Jeff Young
The Best Travel Books of 2025, recommended by Tom Parfitt
The Best Travel Books of 2025, recommended by Tom Parfitt
Every year, the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards highlight the very best of recently published place writing, and select their ‘travel book of the year.’ We asked judge Tom Parfitt, the author and former foreign correspondent, to talk us through the six travel books that made the 2025 shortlist.
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1
Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar
by Cynthia Carr -
2
Candida Royalle and the Sexual Revolution: A History from Below
by Jane Kamensky -
3
Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers
by Jean Strouse -
4
Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People
by Tiya Miles -
5
The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at The New Yorker
by Amy Reading
The Best Biographies: The 2025 NBCC Shortlist, recommended by Mary Ann Gwinn
The Best Biographies: The 2025 NBCC Shortlist, recommended by Mary Ann Gwinn
We always look forward to the shortlists for the National Book Critics Awards, on the basis that literary critics are probably the best read people out there. Here, we asked the garlanded critic Mary Ann Gwinn to talk us through the five biographies highlighted in 2025.
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novels
Every year, the Pulitzer Prize jury awards $15,000 to a work of “distinguished fiction published during the year by an American author, preferably dealing with American life.” We’ve compiled a guide to the books that have won this prize since the turn of the millennium.
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1
Italy Reborn: From Fascism to Democracy
by Mark Gilbert -
2
Catland: Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern World
by Kathryn Hughes -
3
The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham
by Lucy Hughes-Hallett -
4
Forbidden Desire in Early Modern Europe: Male-Male Sexual Relations, 1400-1750
by Noel Malcolm -
5
Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin
by Sue Prideaux -
6
Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin, and the Battle Between Science and Religion
by Michael Taylor
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 Duff Cooper Prize, recommended by Minoo Dinshaw
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 Duff Cooper Prize, recommended by Minoo Dinshaw
It’s a nonfiction book prize that values “style, rigour, argument, meatiness, readability, freshness, oddity and individuality,” says Minoo Dinshaw, author of Friends in Youth and one of this year’s judges. He introduces the six brilliant books that made the shortlist of this year’s Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize, from the history of post-World War II Italy to the disputes caused by the discovery of dinosaur fossils.
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Native Nations: A Millennium in North America
by Kathleen DuVal -
Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War
by Edda L. Fields-Black -
No Right to An Honest Living: The Struggles of Boston's Black Workers in the Civil War Era
by Jacqueline Jones -
Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power
by Jefferson Cowie -
Cuba: An American History
by Ada Ferrer
Pulitzer Prize-Winning History Books
Pulitzer Prize-Winning History Books
Every year, the Pulitzer Prize jury awards $15,000 to a “distinguished and appropriately documented book on the history of the United States.” We’ve compiled a guide to the winning books since the turn of the millennium.
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1
King: A Life
by Jonathan Eig -
2
The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of The Bondwoman's Narrative
by Gregg Hecimovich -
3
Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong's Rendezvous with American History
by Yunte Huang -
4
Betty Friedan: Magnificent Disrupter
by Rachel Shteir -
5
Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage
by Jonny Steinberg
The Best Biographies of 2024: The National Book Critics Circle Shortlist, recommended by Elizabeth Taylor
The Best Biographies of 2024: The National Book Critics Circle Shortlist, recommended by Elizabeth Taylor
The boundaries between biography, history and news are very porous, says Elizabeth Taylor—chair of the judging panel for the 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. Here, she introduces us to the five-strong shortlist of books, all of which, she notes, made headlines or “contributed to a substantial revision of history.”