It’s easy to feel intimidated by book awards—numerous shortlists, longlists, and winners are announced all year round, universally prestigious in their own right—so we collected some of the biggest awards to watch here so you can stay on top of all the winners. Because these books are selected by esteemed juries or voted upon by the masses, they are great jumping-off points to build up your to-be-read list. From historical fiction to young people’s literature, these books all represent excellence in their genre. Read on to browse our audiobook playlists to help you hone in on the best of the best!
Major Book Awards
The Pulitzer Prizes
Honoring excellence in journalism and the arts since 1917, The Pulitzer Prize is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature and musical composition within the United States.
The Booker Prize
The Booker Prize (formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker Prize) is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English.
National Book Critics Circle Awards
Each year, the National Book Critics Circle presents awards for the finest books published in English in six categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography, Poetry, and Criticism.
National Book Awards
The National Book Awards are a set of annual literary awards to celebrate the best literature in America. The shortlist for 2024 will be announced in October, and the winners in November.
Women’s Prize for Fiction and Nonfiction
The Women’s Prize for Fiction and Nonfiction are the UK’s most prestigious annual book awards celebrating and honoring fiction and nonfiction written by women.
Kirkus Prize
The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world. The award is given to authors of fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature who received starred reviews from Kirkus on publication.
Other Awards
Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence
The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, established in 2012, recognize the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. in the previous year and serve as a guide to help adults select quality reading material.
Audie Awards
The Audie Awards® is the most prestigious award recognizing distinction in audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment.
AudioFile Earphone Awards
The Earphones Award is awarded monthly by AudioFile to truly exceptional titles that excel in narrative voice and style, characterizations, suitability to audio, and enhancement of the text.
Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, first awarded in 2006, was created to honor the best debut fiction of the year. The winner receives a $15,000 prize, with each shortlisted author receiving $1,000.
Edgar® Awards
Each spring, Mystery Writers of America present the Edgar® Awards, widely acknowledged to be the most prestigious awards in the mystery and crime genre.
Lambda Literary Awards
Created over 30 years ago to recognize the crucial role LGBTQIA+ writers play in shaping the world, the Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQIA+ literature.
Odyssey Awards
A list of the winning and honor audiobooks for the Odyssey Award for best audiobooks produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States.
Pen/Faulkner Award (Nothing beyond 2023)
The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction honors the best published works of fiction by American permanent residents in a calendar year.
The Walter Awards
Presented by We Need Diverse Books, the Walter Dean Myers Awards for Outstanding Children’s Literature recognize diverse authors whose works feature diverse main characters and address diversity in a meaningful way.
The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction
Honoring the achievements of the founding father of the historical novel, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction celebrates quality of writing in the English language, and is open to novels published in the previous year in the UK, Ireland or the Commonwealth.
What’s your favorite book award?
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