Books Honored with The Kirkus Prize
First awarded in 2014, 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 86 years of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large. Books that earn the Kirkus Star are automatically nominated for the Kirkus Prize. The Kirkus Prize judges select three winners each year in October. Below are books written by writers of African descent.
4 Books Honored with The Kirkus Prize in 2016
Winner - Young Readers’ Literature
As Brave As You
by Jason Reynolds
- A Top 150 Children’s Book
- 4 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Coretta Scott King Award Winning Book 2017
- Kirkus Prize Finalist/Winner 2016
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Publication Date: May 03, 2016
List Price: $19.99
Format: Hardcover, 432 pages
Classification: Fiction
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
ISBN13: 9781481415903
Imprint: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Parent Company: KKR & Co. Inc.
Read a Description of As Brave As You
Finalist - Fiction
The Underground Railroad: A Novel
by Colson Whitehead
- A Top 10 Book in the “Fiction Books of the 21st Century” Category
- 2 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2017)
- Kirkus Prize Finalist/Winner 2016
- A 2016 Oprah Book Club Selection
- 2017 BCALA Literary Award
- A New York Times Notable Book for 2016
Publication Date: Aug 02, 2016
List Price: $26.95
Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9780385542364
Imprint: Doubleday
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann
Read a Description of The Underground Railroad: A Novel
Every now and then a book comes along that reaches the marrow of your bones, settles in, and stays forever. This is one. It’s a tour de force, and I don’t say that lightly.” —Oprah Winfrey says, Oprah’s Book Club 2016 Selection
From prize-winning, bestselling author Colson Whitehead, a magnificent tour de force chronicling a young slave’s adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South
Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned—Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.
In Whitehead’s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar’s first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city’s placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.
Like the protagonist of A Gulliver’s Travels, Cora encounters different worlds at each stage of her journey—hers is an odyssey through time as well as space. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre-Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman’s ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.
Finalist - Nonfiction
The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America
by Michael Eric Dyson
Publication Date: Feb 02, 2016
List Price: $27.00
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780544387669
Imprint: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Parent Company: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Read a Description of The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America
A provocative and lively deep dive into the meaning of America’s first black presidency, from “one of the most graceful and lucid intellectuals writing on race and politics today” (Vanity Fair).
Michael Eric Dyson explores the powerful, surprising way the politics of race have shaped Barack Obama’s identity and groundbreaking presidency. How has President Obama dealt publicly with race—as the national traumas of Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, and Walter Scott have played out during his tenure? What can we learn from Obama’s major race speeches about his approach to racial conflict and the black criticism it provokes?
Dyson explores whether Obama’s use of his own biracialism as a radiant symbol has been driven by the president’s desire to avoid a painful moral reckoning on race. And he sheds light on identity issues within the black power structure, telling the fascinating story of how Obama has spurned traditional black power brokers, significantly reducing their leverage.
President Obama’s own voice—from an Oval Office interview granted to Dyson for this book—along with those of Eric Holder, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young, and Maxine Waters, among others, add unique depth to this profound tour of the nation’s first black presidency.
Finalist - Young Readers’ Literature
Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life
by Ashley Bryan
- A Top 150 Children’s Book
- Coretta Scott King Award Winning Book 2017
- Kirkus Prize Finalist/Winner 2016
- Newbery Medal Winner or Honor 2018
- A New York Times Notable Book for 2016
Publication Date: Sep 13, 2016
List Price: $17.99
Format: Hardcover, 56 pages
Classification: Fiction
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
ISBN13: 9781481456906
Imprint: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Parent Company: KKR & Co. Inc.
Read a Description of Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life
Using original slave auction and plantation estate documents, Ashley Bryan offers a moving and powerful picture book that contrasts the monetary value of a slave with the priceless value of life experiences and dreams that a slave owner could never take away.
Imagine being looked up and down and being valued as less than chair. Less than an ox. Less than a dress. Maybe about the same as…a lantern.
You, an object. An object to sell.
In his gentle yet deeply powerful way, Ashley Bryan goes to the heart of how a slave is given a monetary value by the slave owner, tempering this with the one thing that CAN’T be bought or sold—dreams. Inspired by the actual will of a plantation owner that lists the worth of each and every one of his “workers”, Bryan has created collages around that document, and others like it. Through fierce paintings and expansive poetry he imagines and interprets each person’s life on the plantation, as well as the life their owner knew nothing about—their dreams and pride in knowing that they were worth far more than an Overseer or Madam ever would guess. Visually epic, and never before done, this stunning picture book is unlike anything you’ve seen.