Tayari Jones, an endowed professor at Emory University, has received the 2026 Kirkus Prize for Fiction for her latest novel, Kin. The book is Professor Jones' fifth novel.
A professor emerita of literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Yamashita is the author of eight books and several plays. She has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.
Adela Najarro of Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, Juliana Spahr of the Mills College campus of Northeastern University in Oakland, Beth Lew-Williams of Princeton University in New Jersey, and Deborah Willis of New York University have been announced as winners of an American Book Award.
