welcome, everybody.

going to get started. so please find a comfortable place to sit to stand. we're all thrilled. you could be here tonight. we're moving into the awards of the evening. that's why you're all here. i'm beer. i'm the editor in chief, kirkus

reviews and. i'm very pleased to welcome to the 2024 kirkus prize guys. we're so glad you could join us tonight for the festivities and we hope you've had a lovely time mixing and mingling on this beautiful. please find a comfortable spot to watch. this is. the main event, this is the 11th occasion at which we've to present these unique literary awards established in 2014. thanks to support of kirkus cochairmen mark winkelman and herb simon, who just who just sunday was inducted. yes, this true into the nba hall of fame. okay okay. so week at kirkus. thank you, herb and mark

championing the magazine, the prize and, the literary community at large. this is our second year hosting the ceremony. many here in new york, home of the publishing industry where, so many editors, agents, publicists and book people can gather with us and for the fourth consecutive year, we're streaming the events on youtube so that many more book lovers at home can watch. thanks to of you for being here tonight. now i'd like to introduce the publisher and ceo of quercus media, meg keen. meg's in the importance of kirkus reviews to the book world and. her leadership of the company. we're vital to the development of the kirkus prize and it's safe to say that none of us would be here tonight without her vision. thank you, meg.

the hardest working man in publishing a tom beer. thank you for celebrating with us tonight. either here in new york or virtually from the world. okay. i'm going to open tonight's program with a little fun fact. it is impossible for you to lick your own elbow. next, fun fact is that upon learning that 75% of people will try to lick their own elbows. so why are we inclined to try the impossible? perhaps that's a worth posing to the authors in room tonight, because we know success in this industry is -- near impossible. in fact, the probable of an

author or illustrator being named a finalist for the kirkus is. 0.18%. and for the 2024 prize, our. read 3246 works of adult fiction alone. they read 2808 nonfiction books and to come up with the only six finalist notes they read. thousand 903 books for young readers, that's a total of almost thousand books that were read cover to cover and reviewed for this award, which means more books were considered for the kirkus prize than any literary award in world. over the past decade, our critics have read and consider heard more than 100,000 books for only 30 awards.

we've had final is from far flung corners of the globe nb and every region in the united states. our prizes been awarded to small presses, major houses, margin voices and authors, great influence because we read so the kirkus prize also the most thorough and, inclusive literary award in the world. tonight winners in three categories will be awarded thousand dollars each for fiction, nonfiction in and young readers literature in addition to the money, each winner will receive a trophy, the trophy is a commissioned art piece by the duo of orsini and in london, every detail is handmade from the porcelain pages of the open book to the hand-blown glass

dome. we create each year as a gift of appreciation and for the winners contribution. our industry, our art, our world. is is. to.

last year we hosted the kirkus prize award ceremony for first time in new york to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our award. but by the end of the night, all knew that new york would be the new home for the ceremony. this event. this event has always been wondrous for authors and readers but here in new york, the birthplace kirkus and the cradle of american book publishing, the event seemed expand to a more complete celebrate of the work here. we celebrate not just with the authors but also the editors and agents and publicists and marketing managers and salespeople and so many who made the choice to work in book industry.

others who chose careers clearly not in pursuit of money, but indeed in pursuit of richness, depth understanding, and an almost pathological curiosity about the human experience we all the arts, we all chose this art. and in this room you can feel intellectual connection that creates between all of us there's a sense of purpose and a purity of intention that we recognize in each other. maybe it's appreciation for the abstract or a willingness to surrender our own personal reality, ease and to a world created or defined by someone. it's empathy at its most profound manifests passion. it's a communion of the deepest parts of ourselves. and it's also very hard work when that has to function, in the context of american

business. some of you in this room might call it a grind. there's the research and writing but there's also the pitching and piano sales and editing and feedback. more editing plans and emails and emails and emails and budgets and layout and cover design and marketing copies and galleys reviews, product pages and sales conference and and algorithms and pre-sales in print advertising, publicity, maybe a book tour signings. did anyone bring a sharpie marker? interviews and podcasts and webinars and phone calls and zoom meetings and slack and social media to and in the midst of all that, maybe sometimes we don't time to pause and about that purity of intention we spend a third of our lives at work, which means in our business we spend third of our lives creating producing and promoting and ideas, art that is meaningful and and real. and when do we celebrate that? when do we have a of champagne

and break bread with our friends and colleagues and consider that our choices were good and worthy, that bringing books to this world is worth the grind. my friends here in new york, that moment is. now i'd like to leave the final list with one final fun fact you already won. 0.18% chance that would get this far and. you did it. i hope and all of our colleagues. the room will soak up the appreciate asian respect involve ideation that's here for you tonight. we respect your talent. we appreciate hard, painfully unglamorous work and we offer

you validation that the risk took to follow your heart to. the arts was bright. thank you, meg. tonight we gather to recognize outstanding works. fiction, nonfiction and young readers literature that were published in the past 12 months. we'd like you all to get to know the remarkable creators of these books a little bit better. so we dispatch editor at large megan labrise post, host of the fully podcast to meet with all them on zoom for a series of what we like to call conversations, a prelude to the sorts of impromptu people are having here tonight. here's meghan.

okay, first question. how did you find out book was a kirkus prize finalist. where were you? i was to sneak in a morning run when my editor from doubleday called, me and she told me and i screamed in the middle of the street and tried to run while talking to her and then eventually just changed course and and bought a very fancy copy and then came home. i think i was sitting right here on desk and i got an email from my publicist. then that i wasn't allowed to tell him i was in the middle moving a sculpture or i had just dropped my kids off from school and i saw the email and i was like i just need to get into the wall of the building. and all the parents around me were like well, some of us had these group exchange so that anyone ever read them. our careers would be over. and so i checked this. that is the most entertaining.

and one of them was like, yo, dj, congratulate the cookies, you know? and i'm like, well, i congrats on the cookies, man. you're a finalist for the kirkus ad. no idea. i was in a national park with some family, and then i got the email and i was just like, what's like, what is this by myself? read it three or four times. but we had a bit of a and then came back and got lot of ice cream. i was in a meeting with my co-principal and our dean of students and i sneak a peek at my personal email and stop paying attention for a couple of minutes. the bell rang and some, you know, we had to go out and direct students to their classroom. so 500 kids have this way of putting you right back into, you know, reality immediately. but it was a really exciting. what does this a recognition of your work mean to you? what is being deemed a kirkus prize finalist mean to you? i just really love being in company. i'm not going to lie when i talk about other people.

i was just like, oh god, look, to be on this list is such a phenomenal feeling, really. one of the highlights of my career far. i really are the one that this is just to be included in this company. feels like a like a dream complete. it's an extraordinary group of finalists, but also working in such diverse fields. but to be selected for this award, i think to me just means that it's also an opportunity to get the book in front of more readers. and given that you, know the way i think about it, the whole thing doesn't really exist until people start reading. i'm just really excited that. more people will get to meet all of these. they're not characters, they aren't. they are real people who i have spent so much time with and so much about. this nomination was really and it brought back some of that purity and love of what i think we all do this in the first place because it really is about the power of these stories and

the power of these truths that we're trying to bring forward itself is just such a low serotonin hand job. the reward is you spend three, maybe four years sitting, sitting at home staring out the window at the ring, working, you know, desperate for any spike and and then, you know, along comes this prize shortlist. there's the spike. and suddenly you feel good about yourself. and that matters. and, you know, kirkus kirkus is really touch tough minded. i've had all sorts of response this from kirkus. and i have never felt that there was an unfair criticism. i always have have some trouble with the concept of artistic award from you know knowing got perhaps if the judging had excluded on a thursday instead of a wednesday might not be on the list but which be fine and it would be nice to win an award every week. that's the next one is what part

this process has brought you the most pleasure finished. what i really like the form of the novel is that it's not a form, you know, when you think about it historic or even the word novel, you know, it's just. it's just this new thing. it's. it's the place where you put things that don't fit any other category. it seems to me when you really think about it, that life is fundamentally strange and that the novel, subjectively and objectively, has the capacity to enter into the strangeness in all its forms. i get to study something. i've never studied before. i don't remember it. i'm done with the novel, so i'm not any for the for the effort but but that's that's the fun part in it. and it's the layers and the fact that readers will come to it and make whatever they want to make has nothing do with me is

anything you would like to say to the people who were there and of your work? i guess i would like to start by expressing just my like eye watering gratitude and disorientation on the wall. like i said before, you this book by yourself in a room and you don't really know what any it means, you're just following the threads to what feels truest to you and i don't know, it's really thrilling. we just felt really lucky. we felt lucky. be in the room, i got to say. so thank you for having us. thank you for. putting me in this this category along with people chosen to write with beautiful. thank you from the bottom of my. i'm incredibly grateful. just thank for believing this call to activist and call to solidarity call to and to hope

as author and an artist, i sometimes feel so unseen and so i would say thank you for you know how the wording writer who's been around for a while and kind of felt like oh you know i'm just going to stay in my lane and i'll be okay and i can move out of the old lady lane. and i speeding up the kirkus prize zone. so thank you for that. well, we a room with you. you have to. we love it. congratulations to, all the finalists, your books educated, entertained, moved and inspired us tremendously. three very special books will win kirkus prize. tonight, this year's stellar group of finalists was selected

by an esteemed of two jurors in each category, all of them booksellers. librarians, critics, journalists or authors working in collaboration with the editors of kirkus. together, we read widely, deeply to produce the shortlist of books that we strongly believe represent the very best works of being published today. each is a book that you could share with many different kinds of readers, and we know that they all stand the test of time. will begin the awards presentation with the prize in young readers literature. the jurors this category are christopher a best kirkus reviewer and curator of the children's literature research

collection at the free library in philadelphia and michelle h. martin, kirkus reviewer and. beverly cleary endowed professor in children and youth services in the information school at the university of washington. and here to introduce the final ists is young readers editor laura simeon. good evening. the finalists for the 2024 kirkus prize for young readers literature are we who produce pearls an anthem for asian america by joanna ho illustrated amanda phingbodhipakkiya published by orchard's glass.

exuding love, empathy and reverence. this lavishly illustrated picture book in verse is, a captivating ode to the struggles and triumphs of asian america. this defiantly bold work is vital reading as we strive for a more inclusive understanding of u.s. history. there was a party for langston by jason reynolds illustrated, by jerome pumphrey and jarrett pumphrey. published. caitlin dooley atheneum paying tribute to poet langston hughes, this exuberant book features energetic artwork and potent firsts, rivaling own. this is a book that reminds us why we read. to forge connections. pursue and celebrate the beauty of the written word. sophia's war. i nor han.

published by leader harper immersive storytelling transports readers to world war two paris where sophia is nurtured by her loving french muslim family. this riveting middle grade novel by the real life rescue of hundreds of --, by the people of grand mosque, celebrates solid in the face of hatred. shakti by sherri winston din. published bloomsbury this ode sibling and found family love told in an authentic middle grade voice offers readers and unflinchingly honest story about the impact of parental instability. readers will resonate with african american seventh grader keita's nuanced journey to recognizing her right to be a child. gathered by kenneth m kido,

published by. humor, grace and tenderness bring to life this realized story in a white teen growing up rural poverty and struggling with his mother's opioid addiction. find support and community in. the friends, neighbors and random caregivers he gathers all symbolized the stray dog who gives the novel its title bright red fruit by safiya. hello. oh, published by mill world random house poetry is a lifeline for sudanese american sameera propulsive mesmerizing bursts insightfully explores a complex mother daughter relationship in possible societal expectations for teen girls and tensions, love of community and yearning to break free. as is cruelly exploited by a man

she meets online and uplifted by sisterhood and the winner of the 2024 kirkus prize in young readers literature is gathered by kenneth and carter. boy. everyone i get in front of a faculty on, my high school principal and i'm totally unprepared for a faculty meeting and. you know that relief that i was used to having around books, i

wasn't going to be the one who had to get up there and do it unprepared speech just disappeared. well, well. i woke. so i. i can't remember meg's last name from kirkus who came up here talked about, you know, lifting your elbow and. and attempting the impossible. and a guy who don't. he wasn't born in vermont, but he in vermont. mary bookchin, who's one of my heroes, he. he once said, we attempt the

impossible or face the unthinkable. and i think sometimes that's what educators have do. that's what teachers have to do. because we can't we don't know what we're getting our ready for. we don't know the world they're growing into. but teachers fall in love with these kids. we try to do our best to usher them into the world and at. and it's i think. then what we do with education is we look at the data and we see a whole ton of numbers and we forget that every kid is, an individual and it's so easy. it's so easy right now. it's almost in vogue to disparage the white, rural, male and they were all young once and

they all had their own difficulties. once and then. and then we can look at the individual and that's what i think literature does. that's what i think. kirkus does when they take that time with a book. and so thank you so much to kirkus. thank you to ginger and candlewick and and my wife, lisa for putting up with me. like this is this is every one of those kids because i wrote this book for ian, for the main character, to just who knows who he's going to grow up to be. but as children were beautiful. so i'm to stop there.

thank you. the next tour this evening is the prize for nonfiction nonfiction. the jurors in, this category are hannah bay, journalist, author and illustrator. work has appeared in margins catalog. the washington post, the san francisco chronicle and in anthologies redbook and don't me crazy and pulitzer prize winning journalist gwinn, former books

editor of the seattle times, whose work has appeared in kirkus reviews, the los angeles times and the minnesota star tribune. and here to the finalists is, non-fiction editor john mcmurtrie. hello, everyone. good to be here. the finalists for nonfiction are, the achilles trap. saddam hussein, the cia, and the origins of america's invasion of iraq. by coll. published by penguin press. steve, an acclaimed journalist who's about osama bin laden and. u.s. involvement in afghanistan here exposes the backdrop.

to one of the pivotal u.s. involvement in afghanistan. excuse me. pivotal events of early 21st century. the iraq war. his analysis of the united states is catastrophic. dealings with saddam hussein. across three decades is a remarkable of investigative reporting and gripping narrative storytelling. a writer with deep knowledge of his subject. challenger. a true story of heroism and disaster on the edge of. space. by adam higginbotham published by avid reader press meticulously reported and gracefully written. adam higginbotham. devastating account. reveals the little known facts behind an entirely preventable. the explosion the space shuttle challenger in january 86 killing

all crew members on board. the author details the technical issues led to the disaster. but more crucially, he shines a light on the human failings as well as the bravery that on display in this epical event. feeding ghosts a memoir. by tessa hulls is published by amc, the farrar, straus and giroux. this exceptional book employs a harmonious combination of words and pictures to grapple with complex truths about the effects of trauma and mental illness on the author. her mother and her grandmother with. the ordeals of the chinese people during. and after world war two, in the foreground. rarely has a family's history been so effectively connected

world events by an artist writer who also seeks an honest with her own actions. theaunting illustrations elevate feeding ghosts to the top rank of contemporary graphic memoirs. the garden against time in search of common. a common. by olivia lang, published by w.w. norton at once inside of in lyrical olivia lange's books book is a sublime study of gardens and gardening through history from the literary depiction of eden in milton's paradise lost to the roots of english style gardens in the slave trade and the practice of gardening in the age of climate change. the book's many diverse branches are grounded in the author's account of restoring an 18th century garden at her home in suffolk, england.

a personal passion that deepens this stirring meditation undo burden. life and death decisions in postwar american. the by shefali luthra published by doubleday, a phenomenal feat of on the ground reporting undue burden documents in clear eyed detail and accessible prose. the real life hardships caused by the u.s. supreme court's decision. the reversal rather of roe v wade and the multitude of abortion restrictions that states have enacted in the two years since. the authorravels from texas and oklahoma to california and new mexico. speaking with pregnant people and health care providers and gathering stories to better understand the ripple effects, large, small on health, on reproductive health care and personal in america.

another word for love, a memoir. by carvell wallace published by abcd. farrar and giroux carvell wallace candid on and moving memoir asks to consider what. does it mean to become a person? and what does it mean to love? in captivating like fashion, the author builds a portrait of himself as a young black man raised by single mother, and the formative experiences from house listeners to addiction and parenting that shaped him. another word for love is a searching, elegantly written inquiry that is both deeply and profoundly philosophical and. the winner of the 2024 kirkus prize for nonfiction is

challenger by adam higginbotham. i was really certain that this wasn't going to happen, so my wife said to me, you should write a speech just in case. and i said, that was ridiculous. so we compromised and i made the list. so i really i really didn't think this is going to have a --. i mean, is so thank you to to

everyone at kirkus. you alicia, especially the judges of the award. libby and and marianne quinn. for recognizing my work alongside. it's such an extraordinary group of fellow authors who are all sitting down there. i'd like to thank everyone who helped me during the years of research and reporting of this book. rocket astronauts nasa's secretaries, technicians, navy divers, news reporters who share their memories. archives with me. but most of all, the families and friends of the challenger crew without whose understanding and trust it wouldn't have been able to possible to tell a it wouldn't be possible to tell a story at all.

writing a book is a is, in my experience, very lonely. and as someone else has pointed out, serotonin free experience and often feels like you're doing it on your own. but the truth is, as most people in this room know, that's completely inaccurate. so i would like to thank everyone, simon and schuster, an avid reader, jon karp, ben lunin, who is here in the room over there, trophy for ari adler, kelly, jonathan evans, dave kass, eva meredith vieira, lorenzo. nick rooney, and my editor in london, greg close. i'd like to thank my agents edward all of sophie lambert and christina moore and most of all, i would like to thank my endlessly patient and brilliant wife, vanessa mobley, and daughter isla, without whose and

belief i wouldn't standing here this evening. thank you i couldn't be more astonished. so. are we ready for the final prize of the evening. it's been an exciting night. thank you. now for the final award of evening. the kirkus prize in fiction. the jurors for the prize are christine barlow, co-owner and director of program for loyalty in washington, d.c. and silver spring, maryland. and jeffrey burke, kirkus

reviewer and former editor at, harper's magazine, wall street journal, vanity fair. and bloomberg. and here to introduce the finalists is fiction editor laurie muchnick laurie muchnick. good. good evening. the for the 2024 kirkus prize for fiction are. say hello to my little friend by jennine capo crucet. published. published by simon schuster. a young man who went from cuba to miami. a raft. an orca who spent most of her life at seaworld. the movie scarface. moby --.

somehow, jennine capo cret combines these disparate elements into a singularly compelling novel. unclassified able and unforgettable. the mighty read. louise erdrich. published by harper kismet poe is in school and two boys want to marry her. her mother is a trucker who hauls sugar beets and her charming father stole money from their church. the red river cuts a vivid track. the hardscrabble lives that anchor louise erdrich latest novel, a tender, wise and capacious of the land and people of dakota. james by percival everett. published by doubleday in percival everett's audacious reimagining of huckleberry finn. jim the enslaved man, travels

the mississippi river with huck is revealed as james who can write argue with voltaire and speak in the most elevated english. this enthralling novel can be read on its own, but everett has made a necessary companion to twain's masterpiece prophet song by paul lynch lynch. published by atlantic monthly press over the course of paul lynch's frightening novel, one woman tries to preserve her family as ireland devolves into a brutal police state. eilish's labor unionist has been taken away and her son has been called to military duty. lynch makes every step of this near-future nightmare as plausible as is horrific. playground by richard powers. published by w.w. norton.

two boys bond over board games and fall in love with the same girl. one becomes a tech multimillionaire. the other moves to an island in the middle of the pacific ocean. there's an elderly scuba diver, too. richard powers explores the computer revolution and the preciousness of aquatic life in this engaging, eloquent message for our fragile planet. and margo's got money troubles, ruthie. for. published by william morrow. when margo, a college freshman, gets pregnant with, her english professor's baby, she decides, keep it. one thing leads to another, and she's posting videos on onlyfans a -- site and taking marketing advice from her pro-wrestler dad, roofie thorpe's exuberant novel, terrific characters, deep thoughts, fiction and morality. a story and a happy ending and the winner of the 2024 kirkus prize for fiction is james by percival everett.

accepting the prize is bill thomas, the publisher and editor in chief of doubleday. all right. so in addition to being a prolific and brilliant novelist, a trainer, a painter, a fly fisherman and a jazz musician, a mathematical philosopher and overall renaissance man, first of all, teaches full time at usc. so he couldn't be here this evening as semester is in full swing. but he did write a note in case he was honored with this award, which i will read in his stead. he says, thank you for this award, but more importantly for being considered with these wonderful works. to my dear friend and agent melanie jackson and my wonderful editor, lee boudreau, and all

the folks at dominique. and as always, thanks to my wife, danzy senna, without her, there would be no books. thank you. congratulations to all the winners and the finalists for your outstanding contributions to contemporary literature. thank you you. a big thank you to our production team wild downs pr and to the publicist for the kirkus prize. kimberly burns of broadside pr. tonight's playlist is hers too. thanks to all of you watching at home on youtube. and for those of those with us here in new york, we invite you to stay and enjoy food and drink from the buffets stations set up

around the room. please stop by the hive. mind books table where signed copies of the kirkus prize finalists winners are for sale. have a very good but they had to. congratulations on writing a most engaging book. the last kilo fills in important gaps in public history, in public knowledge about drug trafficking and organized crimes in the united states and globally. names such