Start your reading year off on the right foot
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, December 30, 2025
‘tis award season for books, although many of these prizes were awarded throughout the calendar year. Many people use such lists to help decide what to read next or what to add to that towering TBR pile. Here is a list of 2025 literary award winners.
2025 Pulitzer Prize winners:
Fiction: James by Percival Everett
Biography: Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life by Jason Roberts
Memoir or Autobiography: Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls
History: Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War by Edda L. Fields-Black, and Native Nations: A Millennium in North America by Kathleen DuVal
General Nonfiction: To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement by Benjamin Nathans
Poetry: New and Selected Poems by Marie Howe
2025 Booker Prize Winner:
Flesh by David Szalay
2025 International Booker Prize Winner:
Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq
2025 Nobel Prize in Literature:
Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.” Krasznahorkai is the author of Sátántangó, The Melancholy of Resistance, and many other works.
2025 National Book Award Winners:
Fiction: The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine
Nonfiction: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
Poetry: The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems by Patricia Smith
Translated Literature: We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated from the Spanish by Robin Myers
Young People’s Literature: The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story by Daniel Nayeri
2025 Women’s Prize Winners:
Fiction: The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
Nonfiction: The Story of a Heart by Dr. Rachel Clarke
2025 Kirkus Award Winners:
Fiction: The Slip by Lucas Schaefer
Nonfiction: King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation by Scott Anderson
2025 PEN/Faulkner Award Winner:
Small Rain by Garth Greenwell
2025 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction:
Code Noir by Canisia Lubrin
2025 Hugo Awards
Best Novel: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
Best Novella: The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler
Best Novelette: The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea by Naomi Kritzer
Best Short Story: Stitched to Skin Like Family Is by Nghi Vo
Best Series: Between Earth and Sky by Rebecca Roanhorse
Best Graphic Story or Comic: Star Trek: Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way written by Ryan North, art by Chris Fenoglio
Best Related Work: Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right by Jordan S. Carroll
Best Poem: A War of Words by Marie Brennan
2024 Bram Stoker Awards (announced June 14):
Superior Achievement in:
Novel: The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste
First Novel: The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim
Middle Grade Novel (TIE): There’s Something Sinister in Center Field by Robert P. Ottone; The Creepening of Dogwood House by Eden Royce
Young Adult Novel: Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Church of Frendo by Adam Cesare
Long Fiction: Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram
Short Fiction: Versus Versus by Laird Barron
Fiction Collection: Love is a Crematorium and Other Tales by Mercedes M. Yardley
Anthology: Discontinue If Death Ensues: Tales from the Tipping Point by Carol Gyzander & Anna Taborska
Long Non-Fiction: Horror for Weenies: Everything You Need to Know About the Films You’re Too Scared to Watch by Emily C. Hughes
Short Non-Fiction: Blacks in Film and Cultivated Bias by Lisa Wood
Poetry: Mexicans on the Moon: Speculative Poetry from a Possible Future by Pedro Iniguez
Graphic Novel: H. P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu by Gou Tanabe
Screenplay: The Substance by Coralie Fargeat
2024 Shirley Jackson Awards (announced July 19)
Novel: Curdle Creek by Yvonne Battle-Felton
Novella: Hollow Tongue by Eden Royce
Novellette: The Thirteen Ways We Turned Darryl Datson into a Monster by Kurt Fawver
Short Fiction: Three Faces of a Beheading by Arkady Martine (Uncanny Magazine Issue Fifty-Eight)
Single-Author Collection: Midwestern Gothic by Scott Thomas (Inkshares)
Edited Anthology: Why Didn’t You Just Leave, edited by Julia Rios and Nadia Bulkin (Cursed Morsels Press)
2024 Philip K. Dick Awards
Winner: Time’s Agent by Brenda Peynado
Special Citation: Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky
UPCOMING AUTHOR EVENTS
Seabrook Beachside Author Series
Chelsea Cole
Saturday, Jan. 17 at 1 p.m.
Seabrook East Main Meeting Room
Featured book(s): A Feast of Thorns and Roses (cookbook)
Chelsea Cole is a chef, recipe developer, and creator of the popular food blog A Duck’s Oven. Her newest cookbook, A Feast of Thorns and Roses, brings lush, imaginative flavors to life with inspired recipes perfect for gatherings.
Mike Cairns’ “Under The Ash: A Pilot’s Story” Book Tour
Montesano Regional Library – Lunch for Your Brain
Tuesday, Jan. 27 from Noon to 1 p.m.
Yelm Timberland Regional Library
Saturday, Jan. 31 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. (registration required)
Westport Timberland Regional Library
Saturday, March 14 from 11 a.m. to Noon
Here’s your chance to chat with Mike in person about his new, highly-rated photo journal, “Under The Ash,” as well as view his remarkable slideshow presentation and take questions about his experiences at Mount St. Helens. Mike will also have copies of his book available to purchase and sign. This one-of-a-kind book showcases some of the best of his never before seen images, the rescue of survivors, facts about the eruption, what the conditions were like for a helicopter pilot, and more.
Barnes & Noble – Olympia
A.L. Hampton Book Signing
Saturday, Jan. 17 from Noon to 4 p.m.
Calling ALL Romantasy readers. Amy L. Hampton is coming back to Barnes & Noble in Olympia. The fourth book in her Crown of the Seven Realms Series, Dark Skies just dropped and she will be signing copies of the first four books in person.
Browsers Bookshop – Olympia
Casey Clapp: The Trees Around You
Saturday, Jan. 17 from 4 to 5 p.m.
Browsers is thrilled to welcome arborist and environmental educator Casey Clapp to enlighten us about trees and share his book The Trees Around You. The book will be available for purchase and signing. A visually rich and entertaining field guide to identifying common trees in the Pacific Northwest’s urban and suburban areas.
WRITERS GROUPS
Hoquiam Writers Group
Harbor Books
Thursday, Jan. 8 from 6 to 8 p.m.
This group is open to all writers who want to attend: writers, poets, journalists, wordsmiths, and storytellers. The group meets monthly on the first Thursday 6-8 p.m. NOTE: We will meet on the 2nd Thursday this month due to the New Year’s holiday.
(Nearly) Silent Writing Club 1st Edition
Browsers Bookshop – Olympia
Thursday, Jan. 15 (date change) from 4 to 5: 30 p.m.
Writing can be lonely business. Join us for Browsers (Nearly) Silent Writing Club to write together from 4 to 5:30 p.m. This month we will meet one week later due to the holiday. Any type of writing, from journaling to an epic novel, is welcome. There is no cost to attend.
BOOK GROUPS AND CLUBS
Harbor Books – Hoquiam
Flights of Fantasy Book Club
Monday, Jan. 12 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
Flights of Fantasy is a monthly book club for lovers of Fantasy and Magical Realism. We meet the second Monday of each month from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Harbor Books. January’s read will be Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones.
Timberland Regional Library
Aberdeen
Rainy Day Reading Reviews
Friday, Jan. 9 from 10:30 a.m.to noon
Jennifer Sturm reviews Ghosts of the British Museum
Come hear about the books that have captivated your friends and neighbors as they share them with you.
PageTurners Book Discussion
Saturday, Jan. 17 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
Join community members and library staff for a monthly book discussion. This month we will be discussing The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester.
McCleary
McCleary Book Club: Off Site Event at McCleary Museum and Event Center
Tuesday, Jan. 13 from 11 a.m. to Noon
This library-sponsored event is occurring off-site at 426 S 3rd St, McCleary. Join community members and library staff for a monthly book discussion. Copies of each month’s selection are available at the McCleary Library service desk.
Hoquiam
PageTurners Book Discussion
Tuesday, Jan. 13, from 6 to 7 p.m.
Join community members and library staff for a monthly book discussion. This month we will be discussing The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez.
STORY TIME
Ocean Shores Public Library Story Time
Saturdays from 10:30 to 11 a.m.
Timberland Regional Library Family Storytime
Aberdeen and Montesano
Thursdays from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
Westport
Wednesday, Jan. 7
10: 30 to 11:30 a.m.
McCleary
Wednesday, Jan. 7
11 a.m. to noon
Raymond Timberland Regional Library
Book Babies
Wednesday, Jan. 7 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
Books, bounces, music and play time for babies and their participating caregivers. This is an early learning program.
Barnes & Noble – Olympia
Barnes & Noble in Olympia hosts Storytime every Saturday at 11 a.m. featuring a different picture book each week.
Browsers Bookshop – Olympia
Bookseller Skye hosts Story Time on the first Saturday of each month from 11 to 11:30 a.m. upstairs at Browsers.
