KIRKUS ANNOUNCES

THE WINNERS OF THE 2022 KIRKUS PRIZE

$150,000 TOTAL AWARDED TO

Himawari House by Harmony Becker, In Sensorium: Notes for My People by Tanaïs, and Trust by Hernan Diaz

This year’s ceremony is live and in person at the Austin Central Library on Thursday, October 27, 2022. It will be streamed on Kirkus’ YouTube channel

at 6pm Central/7pm Eastern.

Austin, TX (October 27, 2022) – At a special ceremony tonight at the Austin Central Library, Kirkus Reviews, the nation’s leading prepublication journal of book reviews, announced the three winners of the ninth annual Kirkus Prize in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, and Young Readers’ Literature. This year’s winners were chosen from the 1,436 titles that received a starred Kirkus review between November 1, 2021 and October 31, 2022 (for fiction and nonfiction), and October 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022 (for young readers’ literature). One of the most coveted designations in the book industry, the Kirkus star marks books of exceptional merit. Each winner receives a cash prize of $50,000, making the Kirkus Prize one of the richest annual literary awards in the world.

The winners of the 2022 Kirkus Prize are:

FICTION :

Winner: TRUST by Hernan Diaz (Riverhead)

A tale of wealth, love, and madness told in four distinct but connected narratives.

Fiction Judges’ Statement: “This year’s finalists are an exciting group, but Hernan Diaz’s TRUST stands out for the way he uses multiple perspectives and forms to push the boundaries of what a novel can do. What seems to begin as an homage to novels of the Roaring ’20s unfolds with each successive layer into a complex story of power, love, and the nature of truth. Trust is a true literary delight.”

2022 Kirkus Prize Fiction Judges: Deesha Philyaw , award-winning author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies; Luis Correa, operations manager and bookseller at Avid Bookshop (Athens, GA); book critic and essayistWendy Smith; and Kirkus fiction editor Laurie Muchnick.

2022 Fiction Finalists: SCARY MONSTERS by Michelle de Kretser (Catapult); GOD’S CHILDREN ARE LITTLE BROKEN THINGS by Arinze Ifeakandu (A Public Space Books); MECCA by Susan Straight (Farrar, Straus and Giroux); SCATTERED ALL OVER THE EARTH by Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani (New Directions); and THE BOOKS OF JACOB by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft (Riverhead).

NONFICTION :

Winner: IN SENSORIUM: NOTES FOR MY PEOPLE by Tanaïs (Harper/HarperCollins)

A novelist and perfume maker serves up a lyrical memoir, sensuous and sensual, that crosses decades and continents.

Nonfiction Judges’ Statement: “It was a pleasure to spend time with the six finalists. Each is a consummate work of art, all vastly diverse and immense in impact. In overwhelming accordance, we selected IN SENSORIUM by Tanaïs as the winner of the 2022 Kirkus Nonfiction Prize for its daring, inventiveness, vision, and lyrical eloquence. Using the framework of fragrance and scent, the author's work confronts aspects of our society related to women, gender, and people of color. Seductive, vital, and incomparable, this is a reading experience that endures.”

2022 Nonfiction Judges: Hanif Abdurraqib , award-winning author of, most recently, A Little Devil in America; Lillian Dabney, librarian at Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum; Kirkus critic and writerSarah Norris; and Kirkus nonfiction editor Eric Liebetrau.

2022 Nonfiction Finalists: BY HANDS NOW KNOWN: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners by Margaret A. Burnham (Norton); THE FACEMAKER: A Visionary Surgeon’s Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I by Lindsey Fitzharris (Farrar, Straus and Giroux);

THE 1619 PROJECT: A New Origin Story edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones, Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman, and Jake Silverstein (One World/Random House); THESE PRECIOUS DAYS: Essays by Ann Patchett (Harper/HarperCollins); and AN IMMENSE WORLD: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong (Random House).

YOUNG READERS’ LITERATURE :

Winner: HIMAWARI HOUSE by Harmony Becker (First Second/Macmillan)

An unforgettable story of personal growth in an exquisitely rendered setting.

Young Readers’ Literature Judges’ Statement: “All of the Young Readers’ Literature finalists represent exceptional prowess in their respective formats and genres, but the judges selected Harmony Becker’s HIMAWARI HOUSE for its remarkable mastery of graphic novel conventions and its perceptive exploration of emotionally resonant, evergreen themes relating to family, friendship, and identity. The book’s brilliance lies both in the authentic cultural specificity that grounds it and Becker’s creative presentation that welcomes all readers in.”

2022 Young Readers’ Literature Judges: Award-winning author-illustrator Jerry Craft, #1New York Times bestselling author of New Kid and Class Act; librarian and educator Junko Yokota, director of the Center for Teaching Through Children’s Books and professor emeritus at National Louis University (Chicago); Kirkus critic and children’s librarian Alec B. Chunn; and Kirkus young readers’ literature editor Laura Simeon.

2022 Young Readers’ Literature Finalists: COFFEE, RABBIT, SNOWDROP, LOST by Betina Birkjær, illustrated by Anna Margrethe Kjærgaard, translated by Sinéad Quirke Køngerskov (Enchanted Lion); THE YEAR WE LEARNED TO FLY by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Rafael López (Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin); THE GOLDEN HOUR by Niki Smith (Little, Brown); THE TROUBLED GIRLS OF DRAGOMIR ACADEMY by Anne Ursu (Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins); and HOW YOU GROW WINGS by Rimma Onoseta (Algonquin).

*

For more information about the 2022 Kirkus Prize, including dates of eligibility, rules, and selection process, as well as original Kirkus reviews and complete bios of the 2022 Kirkus Prize judges, please visit Kirkus Reviews/prize.