Kirkus Best Books of the Year - Short Fiction (Awarded by Kirkus)

Awards List

2023

A New Race of Men from Heaven
(*)
Chaitali Sen

When Trying to Return Home: Stories
(*)
Jennifer Maritza McCauley

Games and Rituals
(*)
Katherine Heiny

White Cat, Black Dog: Stories
(*)
Kelly Link

Fat Time and Other Stories
(*)
Jeffery Renard Allen

The Curious Lives of Nonprofit Martyrs
(*)
George Singleton

Witness: Stories
(*)
Jamel Brinkley

Dearborn
(*)
Ghassan Zeineddine

Good Women
(*)
Halle Hill

Holler, Child: Stories
(*)
LaToya Watkins

Wednesday's Child: Stories
(*)
Yiyun Li

The World Wasn't Ready for You: Stories
(*)
Justin C. Key

Roman Stories
(*)
Jhumpa Lahiri

2022

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century
(*)
Kim Fu

The Last Suspicious Holdout
(*)
Ladee Hubbard

Seeking Fortune Elsewhere: Stories
(*)
Sindya Bhanoo

New and Selected Stories
(*)
Cristina Rivera Garza

Nobody Gets Out Alive: Stories
(*)
Leigh Newman

Out There
(*)
Kate Folk

Your Nostalgia is Killing Me
(*)
John Weir

A Calm & Normal Heart
(*)
Chelsea T. Hicks

God's Children Are Little Broken Things
(*)
Arinze Ifeakandu

The Angel of Rome
(*)
Jess Walter

The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories
(*)
Jamil Jan Kochai

Night of the Living Rez: Stories
(*)
Morgan Talty

Stories from The Tenants Downstairs
(*)
Sidik Fofana

If I Survive You
(*)
Jonathan Escoffery

Natural History
(*)
Andrea Barrett

Liberation Day: Stories
(*)
George Saunders

Pretend It's My Body: Stories
(*)
Luke Dani Blue

2021

Echo Tree
(*)
Henry Dumas

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed
(*)
Mariana Enriquez

Milk Blood Heat
(*)
Dantiel W. Moniz

Land of Big Numbers
(*)
Te-Ping Chen

The Souvenir Museum
(*)
Elizabeth McCracken

Filthy Animals: Stories
(*)
Brandon Taylor

Walking on Cowrie Shells: Stories
(*)
Nana Nkweti

Afterparties: Stories
(*)
Anthony Veasna So

American Estrangement
(*)
Said Sayrafiezadeh

Skinship: Stories
(*)
Yoon Choi

My Monticello: Fiction
(*)
Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

Five Tuesdays in Winter
(*)
Lily King

Reality and Other Stories
(*)
John Lanchester

2020

Collected Stories
(*)
Lorrie Moore

Collected Stories
(*)
Shirley Hazzard

Lake Like a Mirror
(*)
Ho Sok Fong

Sansei and Sensibility
(*)
Karen Tei Yamashita

If I Had Two Wings
(*)
Randall Kenan

The Awkward Black Man: Stories
(*)
Walter Mosley

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
(*)
Deesha Philyaw

Truthtelling
(*)
Lynne Sharon Schwartz

The Office of Historical Corrections
(*)
Danielle Evans

Award Categories

Affirming Picture Books

Bedtime Books

Beginning Readers

Board Books

Book Club Fiction

Books for Beginning Readers

Debut Fiction

Empowering Picture Books

Environmental Fiction

Fiction

Fiction in Translation

Fictional Families

Fictional Voices

Funniest Picture Books

Historical Fiction

Informational Picture Books

Joyous Picture Books

Middle-Grade About Speaking Up

Middle-Grade Activist

Middle-Grade Adventures

Middle-Grade Family Stories

Middle-Grade Fantasy and SF

Middle-Grade Fiction

Middle-Grade Friendship Stories

Middle-Grade Graphic Fiction

Award Years

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019