‘Kirkus’ Prize 2015 winners announced

US publication Kirkus Reviews has announced the winners of its second annual literary prize. Hanya Yanagihara won the fiction prize for A Little Life (Picador), with the judges observing: ‘The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.’ Ta-Nehisi Coates won the nonfiction prize for Between the World and Me: Notes on the First 150 Years in America (Text). The judges said: ‘This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter”. Or: “An American Tragedy”.’ Pam Muñoz Ryan won the children’s literature prize for Echo (illus by Dinara Mirtalipova, Scholastic), described as a ‘grand narrative that examines the power of music to inspire beauty in a world overrun with fear and intolerance’.  Each of the winners receives US$50,000 (A$69,276). Books that earned a Kirkus Star were automatically nominated for the Kirkus Prize, which was chosen by a panel of writers, booksellers, librarians and Kirkus critics. For more information about the winners and to see the list of finalists, visit the Kirkus website here.

Category: International news