2021 Publishers Weekly Best Books (Awarded by Publishers Weekly)

Awards List

Comics

And Now I Spill the Family Secrets: An Illustrated Memoir
(*)
Margaret Kimball

The Secret to Superhuman Strength
(*)
Alison Bechdel

Stone Fruit
(*)
Lee Lai

Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts
(*)
Rebecca Hall

No One Else
(*)
R. Kikuo Johnson

The Waiting
(*)
Keum Suk Gendry-Kim

Fiction

Outlawed
(*)
Anna North

My Year Abroad
(*)
Chang-Rae Lee

No One Is Talking About This
(*)
Patricia Lockwood

The Removed
(*)
Brandon Hobson

The Orphanage
(*)
Serhiy Zhadan

The Five Wounds
(*)
Kirstin Valdez Quade

The Promise
(*)
Damon Galgut

Winter in Sokcho
(*)
Elisa Shua Dusapin

Filthy Animals: Stories
(*)
Brandon Taylor

Dear Miss Metropolitan
(*)
Carolyn Ferrell

Ramadan Ramsey
(*)
Louis Edwards

Harlem Shuffle
(*)
Colson Whitehead

Lean Fall Stand
(*)
Jon McGregor

Cloud Cuckoo Land
(*)
Anthony Doerr

Crossroads
(*)
Jonathan Franzen

The Morning Star
(*)
Karl Ove Knausgaard

The Pastor
(*)
Hanne Orstavik

Burntcoat
(*)
Sarah Hall

The Sentence
(*)
Louise Erdrich

Middle Grade

Katie the Catsitter
(*)
Colleen A.F. Venable

The Raconteur's Commonplace Book
(*)
Kate Milford

Starfish
(*)
Lisa Fipps

How to Become a Planet
(*)
Nicole Melleby

Sisters of the Neversea
(*)
Cynthia Leitich Smith

Samira Surfs
(*)
Rukhsanna Guidroz

Black Boy Joy
(*)
Kwame Mbalia

The Insiders
(*)
Mark Oshiro

The Beatryce Prophecy
(*)
Kate DiCamillo

The Last Cuentista
(*)
Donna Barba Higuera

Playing the Cards You're Dealt
(*)
Varian Johnson

Stuntboy, in the Meantime
(*)
Jason Reynolds

Mystery/Thriller

The Bloodless Boy
(*)
Robert J. Lloyd

Midnight, Water City
(*)
Chris McKinney

The Push
(*)
Ashley Audrain

Who is Maud Dixon?
(*)
Alexandra Andrews

The Anatomy of Desire
(*)
L.R. Dorn

The Photographer
(*)
Mary Dixie Carter

The Plot
(*)
Jean Hanff Korelitz

Black Ice
(*)
Carin Gerhardsen

Steel Fear
(*)
Brandon Webb

These Toxic Things
(*)
Rachel Howzell Hall

The Anomaly
(*)
Herve Le Tellier

Five Decembers
(*)
James Kestrel

Picture Books

Mel Fell
(*)
Corey R. Tabor

Milo Imagines the World
(*)
Matt De La Pena

Keeping the City Going
(*)
Brian Floca

The Night Walk
(*)
Marie Dorleans

The Rock from the Sky
(*)
Jon Klassen

Fish and Sun
(*)
Sergio Ruzzier

Let Me Fix You a Plate
(*)
Elizabeth Lilly

The Longest Storm
(*)
Dan Yaccarino

Chez Bob
(*)
Bob Shea

Have You Seen Gordon?
(*)
Adam Jay Epstein

The Big Bath House
(*)
Kyo Maclear

Born on the Water
(*)
Nikole Hannah-Jones

Dad Bakes
(*)
Katie Yamasaki

Soul Food Sunday
(*)
Winsome Bingham

Romance

The Duke Heist
(*)
Erica Ridley

Wild Rain
(*)
Beverly Jenkins

One Last Stop
(*)
Casey McQuiston

A Lot Like Adios
(*)
Alexis Daria

Love and Lotus Blossoms
(*)
Anne Shade

SF/Fantasy/Horror

On Fragile Waves
(*)
E. Lily Yu

A Desolation Called Peace
(*)
Arkady Martine

Honeycomb
(*)
Joanne M. Harris

Sorrowland
(*)
Rivers Solomon

The Jasmine Throne
(*)
Tasha Suri

In the Watchful City
(*)
S. Qiouyi Lu

Noor
(*)
Nnedi Okorafor

Top 10

Second Place
(*)
Rachel Cusk

A Shock
(*)
Keith Ridgway

Wayward
(*)
Dana Spiotta

Assembly
(*)
Natasha Brown (1)

The War for Gloria
(*)
Atticus Lish

Young Adult

Last Night at the Telegraph Club
(*)
Malinda Lo

Firekeeper's Daughter
(*)
Angeline Boulley

The Mirror Season
(*)
Anna-Marie McLemore

The Mary Shelley Club
(*)
Goldy Moldavsky

Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet
(*)
Laekan Zea Kemp

Blackout
(*)
Dhonielle Clayton

In the Wild Light
(*)
Jeff Zentner

The Other Merlin
(*)
Robyn Schneider

Himawari House
(*)
Harmony Becker

Skin of the Sea
(*)
Natasha Bowen

A Snake Falls to Earth
(*)
Darcie Little Badger

Award Categories

Comics

Fiction

Middle Grade

Mystery/Thriller

Picture Books

Romance

SF/Fantasy/Horror

Top 10

Young Adult

Award Years

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018