This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.
What is the Kirkus Prize. From their website FAQ:
The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature. It was created to celebrate the decades of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large. Books that earn the Kirkus star with publication dates between Nov. 1, 2023 to Oct. 31, 2024 (see FAQ for exceptions), are automatically nominated for the 2024 Kirkus Prize. Six finalists in each of three categories will be announced in August. Three winners will be announced at the Kirkus Prize ceremony on Oct. 16, 2023.
Here is their full announcement of the finalists which inlaces information about the judges. I have an edited version for brevity and emphasis below.
The finalists for the 2024 Kirkus Prize have been revealed, with 18 books contending for one of the richest annual literary awards in the world.
The fiction shortlist is composed of Jennine Capó Crucet’s Say Hello to My Little Friend, Louise Erdrich’s The Mighty Red, Percival Everett’s James, Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song, Richard Powers’ Playground, and Rufi Thorpe’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles.
The finalists for the nonfiction prize are Steve Coll’s The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the CIA, and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq; Adam Higginbogtham’s Challenger: A True Story of Heroism And Disaster on the Edge of Space; Tessa Hulls’ Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir; Olivia Laing’s The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise; Shefali Luthra’s Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in Post-Roe America; and Carvell Wallace’s Another Word for Love: A Memoir.
The young readers’ literature category is divided into three subcategories featuring two books each. In picture books, the finalists are We Who Produce Pearls, written by Joanna Ho and illustrated by Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, and There Was a Party for Langston, written by Jason Reynolds and illustrated by Jerome Pumphrey and Jarrett Pumphrey.
Making the middle-grade list are Safiyyah’s War by Hiba Noor Khan and Shark Teeth by Sherri Winston, while the young adult finalists are Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow and Bright Red Fruit by Safia Elhillo.
The winners of this year’s awards will be announced at an in-person ceremony at the Tribeca Rooftop in New York on Oct. 16, 2024, which will be livestreamed on Kirkus’ YouTube channel at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.
Click here for the Kirkus Prize homepage.
This award pulls double duty as a resource both as an award list AND a year end best list. And it is one the the earliest best lists as well.
Also, like the best of both of these categories of resources, the Kirkus Prize is best used as a resource when you consider the backlist of nominees and winners in your suggestions and displays.
On the main page for all of Kirkus you have super easy access to every nominee and winner going back to 2014. On the banner across the top of every page, there is a tab for "Kirkus Prize" which opens a drop down menu to give you those choices by year. All with little effort. That is extremely helpful for us.
Here is the link to the 2022 page, for example. You can easily pick those nominees from 2 years ago and use them today as a proven, winning suggestion.
Also, as you can see above, this award considers fiction, nonfiction, YA, MG, and picture books. All ages. As I have written about on this blog many times, Intergeneration Displays are a key marketing tool to SHOW your patrons that there is something for them as they walk in...all of them. I also write about how some libraries do not allow them to put books for all ages on one display and to them, I point you to these links which reference Cuyahoga Library (a major system) and their PLA presentation about how and why they create these displays. If it works for them, you can do it too.
Finally, as it says above, any book that Kirkus gave a star is considered. [You can go to their FAQ page for more detail into the considerations for this prize.] That being stated, how useful this award is to you and your patrons only goes so far as you find Kirkus useful.
Love or hate Kirkus reviews, the fact that they give the judges every STARRED review book as their starting point for their work makes a lot of sense. It is way less arbitrary than other major awards (and I say this as someone who has served on the ACM in the past)
But each year I have found it to be a reliable resource to help readers who are looking for a very general list of "the best" of the year, general sure bets, or just " a good read."
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