The WritersReview Meridian Award is the highest literary recognition we bestow, an editorial honor given to one exceptional book per genre each year. It cannot be purchased, entered, or applied for. No submission fees exist. No relationship with this publication influences selection. The Meridian is earned solely on the merit of the work.
About the Award
WritersReview publishes long-form editorial reviews across twelve genres. Our reviewers are readers first — writers, librarians, scholars, and working critics who bring depth of knowledge to every assessment. From that ongoing body of work, our editors identify the books that warrant special recognition.
The Meridian Award was established to answer a single question: of all the books reviewed across a given year, which one in each genre did something genuinely irreplaceable? Not just excellent — irreplaceable. The kind of book that, once read, changes how you see the world.
One winner. Twelve genres. No exceptions, no ties, no consolation prizes bearing the same name.
Our Editorial Standards
Our editors evaluate each title against four criteria. A book need not excel at all four, but it must demonstrate genuine distinction in at least one while not failing in the others.
Prose Craft — The quality of the sentence, its precision, rhythm, and ability to carry meaning that summary cannot.
Originality — Does the book exist within a tradition, or does it expand one? We are not looking for novelty for its own sake.
Lasting Relevance — Will this book be read in twenty years? We weight durability heavily.
Necessity — Is the world materially different for this book existing in it? This is the hardest criterion and the one that most often separates a Meridian Award winner from a Meridian Honor.
For a full account of how WritersReview approaches criticism, see our Editorial Policy.
Two Designations, One Standard
The Meridian Award
One book per genre, per year.
The Meridian Award is given to a single book per genre that our editorial board determines to be the most significant work reviewed that year. Meridian Award winners receive a permanent designation in our review archive and a winner badge for use in their own marketing materials.
The Meridian Honor
Seven books per genre, per year.
Before the Award winner is announced, our editors designate seven books per genre as Meridian Honors — works of exceptional distinction. These are not runners-up. The Honor is its own designation, awarded independently of who receives the Award. Meridian Honor recipients receive a permanent designation in our review archive and an Honor badge for use in their own marketing materials.
How the Meridian Is Awarded
Step 1 — Editorial Nominations: Editors nominate eight finalists per genre. Nominations require agreement from at least three senior editors.
Step 2 — Community Vote: The eight Meridian Honors are published and readers vote openly for one month. Results are published in full following the Award announcement.
Step 3 — Editorial Decision: The full editorial board reviews voting data alongside their own deliberations. The Meridian Award winner is selected by editorial consensus, with a published rationale for each winner.
Twelve Genres
Literary Fiction · Science Fiction · Mystery & Thriller · Biography · History · Self-Help · Business · Young Adult · Children’s · Poetry · Science & Nature · Philosophy
Award Archive
The Meridian Decade Retrospective covers 2015–2024. Annual awards begin with 2025.
2025 — Inaugural Annual Award
Nominations open later this year. Winners announced December 2025.
| Genre | Meridian Award Winner | Author |
|---|---|---|
| Literary Fiction | To be announced | – |
| Science Fiction | To be announced | – |
| Mystery & Thriller | To be announced | – |
| Biography | To be announced | – |
| History | To be announced | – |
| Self-Help | To be announced | – |
| Business | To be announced | – |
| Young Adult | To be announced | – |
| Children’s | To be announced | – |
| Poetry | To be announced | – |
| Science & Nature | To be announced | – |
| Philosophy | To be announced | – |
The Meridian Decade Retrospective, 2015–2024
2024
| Genre | Meridian Award Winner | Author | Meridian Honors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Literary Fiction | James | Percival Everett | Orbital; All Fours; Intermezzo; Season of the Swamp; The God of the Woods; Us Fools; The Familiar |
| Science Fiction | Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock | Maud Woolf | Toxxic; Tomorrow’s Children; Key Lime Sky; The Redemption of Morgan Bright; Myriad; The Armageddon Protocol; The Blood Dimmed Tide |
| Mystery & Thriller | The Comfort of Ghosts | Jacqueline Winspear | Ash Dark as Night; Against the Grain; Blood Like Mine; Murder at la Villette; The Road to Murder; Violent Spring Deluxe Edition; A Disappearance in Fiji Paperback |
| Biography | Warsaw Testament | Rokhl Auerbach | Henri Bendel and the Worlds He Fashioned; Ara; A Prairie Faith; Concrete Century; The Mourner’s Bestiary; The Braille Encyclopedia; Loose of Earth |
| History | Freeman’s Challenge | Robin Bernstein | Vagabonds; Rock Music, Authority and Western Culture, 1964-1980; The Chief Rabbi’s Funeral; Henri Bendel and the Worlds He Fashioned; Ara; The Mourner’s Bestiary; Loose of Earth |
| Self-Help | DEI Deconstructed | Lily Zheng | Be a Dime; You Belong Here; Dare to Author!; Lead without Burnout; The Creative Way Forward; Unwritten; The Art of Hard Conversations |
| Business | Thinking at the Speed of Bias | Howard Ross and JonRobert Tartaglione | The Illusion of Innovation; Disrupt with Impact; The Sixth Level; DEI Deconstructed; Lead without Burnout; The Creative Way Forward; Unwritten |
| Young Adult | Red, White and Royal Blue | Casey McQuiston | The Mongol Ascension; Inevitable Fate; Skater Boy; The Absinthe Underground; The Fate of Magic; Witches of Ash and Ruin; The Inheritance Games |
| Children’s | Friends in the Dark | Susan Hood | The Soil in Jackie’s Garden; Don’t Invite a Bear Inside for Hanukkah; The Twelve Days of Christmas: A Holiday Fantasy; Haven; Marvelous Jackson; The Songbird and the Rambutan Tree; Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank |
| Poetry | From Unincorporated Territory [guma’’] | Craig Santos Perez | The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On; In the Hands of the River; Limonada; An Image of My Name Enters America; Undoing; Whale Fall; The Long Devotion |
| Science & Nature | The Blue Plate: A Food Lover’s Guide to Climate Chaos | Mark J. Easter | Patagonia National Park: Chile; Birding for Boomers (And Other Old Folks Who’ve Always Wanted to Try Birdwatching); Life after Dead Pool: Reckoning with the Colorado River; A Global Warming Primer: Answering Your Questions about the Science, the Consequences, and the Solutions (Updated Edition); Tiny Worlds of the Appalachian Mountains: Encounters with Miniature Nature; Information Crisis: How to Stop an Infodemic; Into Whooperland: A Quest to Save North America’s Rarest Bird |
| Philosophy | No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison | Behrouz Boochani | Information Crisis: How to Stop an Infodemic; Life after Dead Pool: Reckoning with the Colorado River; The Blue Plate: A Food Lover’s Guide to Climate Chaos; Technology’s Child: Digital Media’s Role in the Ages and Stages of Growing Up; Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity; How to Talk to a Science Denier; Revolution of Values: Reclaiming Public Faith for the Common Good |
2023
| Genre | Meridian Award Winner | Author | Meridian Honors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Literary Fiction | Chain-Gang All-Stars | Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah | Biography of X; The Covenant of Water; This Other Eden; A Spell of Good Things; The Liberators; Company; The Waters |
| Science Fiction | World Running Down | Al Hess | Moths; Lessons in Birdwatching; Earth Retrograde; The Knife and the Serpent; The Last Phi Hunter; These Deathless Shores; The Hunter’s Gambit |
| Mystery & Thriller | The Secret Hours | Mick Herron | Last Seen in Lapaz; A Disappearance in Fiji; Murder at the Porte de Versailles; Murder on the Vine; Lady Joker Volume 2 Paperback; So Far and Good Paperback; Murder in Chianti Paperback |
| Biography | Under the Naga Tail | Mae Bunseng Taing | Richard Nixon: California’s Native Son; Royal Robbins; They Got Daddy; The Fifth Chamber; What You Don’t Know Will Make a Whole New World; An Unruled Body; White Burgers, Black Cash |
| History | Awakening the Ashes | Marlene Daut | The Eight; White Burgers, Black Cash; The Humanity Archive; Richard Nixon: California’s Native Son; They Got Daddy; What You Don’t Know Will Make a Whole New World; An Unruled Body |
| Self-Help | Stress Wisely | Robyne Hanley-Dafoe | Chaos to Calm; Things Have Changed; Inner Field Trip; Wonderhell; Dare to Be Naive; How to Talk to Porcupines; Power Mood |
| Business | Talking on Eggshells | Sam Horn | Wall Street Lessons; Good Influence; Honest SEO; The Balanced Business; Wonderhell; Dare to Be Naive; Lead Your Tribe, Love Your Work |
| Young Adult | Casters and Crowns | Kiana Krystle | If You Knew My Name; The Last Saxon King; Beyond the Cemetery Gate; The Titanic Test; Dragonfly Down; Ash & Feather; Murasaki: A Kunoichi Tale |
| Children’s | Rain Before Rainbows | Smriti Prasadam-Halls | While Everyone Is Sleeping; Bentley’s Fantabulous Idea; Bing! Bang! Chugga! Beep!; Cookie Island; Rusty and Emma’s Big Shock!; Sky & Timby; The Four Questions for Littles |
| Poetry | Time Is a Mother | Ocean Vuong | Magdalene; Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude; The Trees Witness Everything; I Remember Paradise; All That It Ever Meant; Dead Reckoning; Glassworks |
| Science & Nature | Technology’s Child: Digital Media’s Role in the Ages and Stages of Growing Up | Sara Prot, Douglas A. Gentile | Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry; A Traveler’s Guide to the End of the World: Tales of Fire, Wind, and Water; Canopy of Titans: The Life and Times of the Great North American Temperate Rainforest; Salmon, Cedar, Rock & Rain: A Naturalist’s Life in the Pacific Northwest; Living River: Notes from the Colorado Plateau; The Calf with Two Heads: And Other Tales of Curiosity from Our Animal World; Great Smoky Mountains National Park: A Natural History Guide |
| Philosophy | No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison | Behrouz Boochani | Technology’s Child: Digital Media’s Role in the Ages and Stages of Growing Up; A Traveler’s Guide to the End of the World: Tales of Fire, Wind, and Water; Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity; The Calf with Two Heads: And Other Tales of Curiosity from Our Animal World; Revolution of Values: Reclaiming Public Faith for the Common Good; Shut It Down: Stories from a Fierce, Loving Resistance; Elegant Simplicity: The Art of Living Well |
2022
| Genre | Meridian Award Winner | Author | Meridian Honors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Literary Fiction | Prophet Song | Paul Lynch | The Secret Life of Church Ladies; Afterparties; Checkout 19; Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century; Stone Yard Devotional; Mother Country; New Animal |
| Science Fiction | HellSans | Ever Dundas | The Circus Infinite; Prison of Sleep; The Warrior; Spidertouch; The Coward; Swashbucklers; The Offset |
| Mystery & Thriller | Shutter | Ramona Emerson | One-Shot Harry; Showstopper; My Annihilation; Lady Joker Volume 2; Diamond and the Eye; So Far and Good; The Bitter Taste of Murder |
| Biography | If This Were Fiction | Jill Christman | Century’s Witness; No Equal Justice; No Place for a Woman; The Widowed Ones; Departure Stories; As Long As I Know You; Yippie Girl |
| History | From Underground Railroad to Rebel Refuge | Karolyn Smardz Frost | The Abolitionist’s Journal; Monuments Man; Queen of the West; Century’s Witness; No Place for a Woman; Departure Stories; Yippie Girl |
| Self-Help | Write a Must-Read | AJ Harper | Combat to College; Your First Home; The Fiscal Feminist; Impact with Integrity; Winning the Mental Game; The Emotionally Strong Leader; Remote Work for Military Spouses |
| Business | The Burnout Epidemic | Jennifer Moss | Leading Inclusion; The Antiracist Business Book; (P)luck; Impact with Integrity; Winning the Mental Game; The Emotionally Strong Leader; Remote Work for Military Spouses |
| Young Adult | The Honeys | Ryan La Sala | The Totally True Story of Gracie Byrne; The Truth About Horses; the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life; The Once upon a Time of Now; Things to See in Arizona; Witch of Wild Things; Prides of the Tundra |
| Children’s | Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diper Överlöde | Jeff Kinney | I Love Strawberries!; Armadillo Antics; Wolves Aren’t Welcome; Finding Moon Rabbit; Crossing the Pressure Line; Ichiro and the Great Mountain; Big and Small, Short and Tall |
| Poetry | American Arithmetic | Natalie Diaz | Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency; Nightingale; Salvage; Shining Rock; Anodyne; Buffalo Girl; Choose Your Own Adventure |
| Science & Nature | Too Big for a Single Mind: How the Greatest Generation of Physicists Uncovered the Quantum World | Tobias Huerter | Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity; Halcyon Journey: In Search of the Belted Kingfisher; The Story of Our Lives: Why We Tell Stories and Why It Matters; This Contested Land: The Storied Past and Uncertain Future of America’s National Monuments; Refraction: A Memoir of Art, Science, and Loss; Wildcrafted Vinegars: Making and Using Artisanal Vinegars for Cooking, Medicine, Beauty, and More; Peatlands of Ohio and the Southern Great Lakes Region |
| Philosophy | Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity | Sandrine Dixson-Decleve, Owen Gaffney, Jayati Ghosh, Jorgen Randers, Johan Rockstrom, Per Espen Stoknes | This Contested Land: The Storied Past and Uncertain Future of America’s National Monuments; Refraction: A Memoir of Art, Science, and Loss; The Story of Our Lives: Why We Tell Stories and Why It Matters; Too Big for a Single Mind: How the Greatest Generation of Physicists Uncovered the Quantum World; Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises (and Essays); Freedom Fighters and Hell Raisers: A Gallery of North Carolina Profiles; Mine: Essays |
2021
| Genre | Meridian Award Winner | Author | Meridian Honors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Literary Fiction | The Trees | Percival Everett | The Committed; What Storm, What Thunder; Lakewood; I Will Die in a Foreign Land; A Psalm for the Wild-Built; The Hare; Filth of the World |
| Science Fiction | Composite Creatures | Caroline Hardaker | Doors of Sleep; The Fallen; The Second Bell; The Maleficent Seven; Forging a Nightmare; The Cabinet; Twenty Five to Life |
| Mystery & Thriller | Clark and Division | Naomi Hirahara | Tower of Babel; Death Under the Perseids; Dead of Winter; The Bombay Prince; Sleep Well My Lady; Wedding Station; An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed |
| Biography | William Still | William C. Kashatus | Eunice Hunton Carter; The Life and Times of Jo Mora; The Sensitive One; Supremely Tiny Acts; A Second Reckoning; Mud Sweeter than Honey; Black Snake |
| History | William Still | William C. Kashatus | A Second Reckoning; Mud Sweeter than Honey; Unsettling Canada; Black Snake; Eunice Hunton Carter; Supremely Tiny Acts; Tastes Like War |
| Self-Help | Self-Care for Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents | Lindsay C. Gibson | Breakthrough; Beware False Tigers; Financial Planning Literacy; The Career Toolkit; Launch Your Career; Workquake; Dream Bold, Start Smart |
| Business | 21st Century Investing | William Burckart and Steve Lydenberg | The Energy Switch; Connected Capitalism; Trustworthy; The Career Toolkit; Launch Your Career; Workquake; Dream Bold, Start Smart |
| Young Adult | A Snake Falls to Earth | Darcie Little Badger | Jester; The Last Huntress; The Complicated Calculus (and Craziness) of Carl Paulsen; The Rarkyn’s Familiar; Aquarian Dawn; Come Day in Night; When You Ask Me Where I’m Going |
| Children’s | Watercress | Andrea Wang | The Nodders; The Legend of Jet the Gerbil; Now What? A Mindfulness Story; Dragonfly Dreams; The Adventure of the Big Fish by the Small Creek; Matt Sprouts and the Curse of the Tangled Spells; When We Were Alone |
| Poetry | frank: sonnets | Diane Seuss | The Hurting Kind; Water I Won’t Touch; Wayward; No Dominion; Letters to the Reanimated Dead; Impersonation; Stray Body |
| Science & Nature | How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason | Lee McIntyre | The Nature of Drugs: History, Pharmacology, and Social Impact; In Search of Mycotopia: Citizen Science, Fungi Fanatics, and the Untapped Potential of Mushrooms; Waves and Beaches: The Powerful Dynamics of Sea and Coast; A Shape in the Dark: Living and Dying with Brown Bears; Dead Serious: Breaking the Cycle of Teen Depression and Suicide; A Salad Only the Devil Would Eat: The Joys of Ugly Nature; The Science of Hope: A Psychologist’s Guide to Overcoming Hardship |
| Philosophy | How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason | Lee McIntyre | After the Ivory Tower Falls: How College Broke the American Dream and Blew Up Our Politics; Disruptive Play: The Trickster in Politics and Culture; Post Truth: How Bullshit Conquered the World; The Art of Uncertainty: How to Live in the Mystery of Life and Love It; What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City; To Lose the Madness: Field Notes on Trauma, Loss, and Radical Empathy; Elegant Simplicity: The Art of Living Well |
2020
| Genre | Meridian Award Winner | Author | Meridian Honors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Literary Fiction | The Discomfort of Evening | Marieke Lucas Rijneveld | Real Life; A Girl Is a Body of Water; Barn 8; Libertie; We Cast a Shadow; A History of My Brief Body; The Midnight Library |
| Science Fiction | Sixteenth Watch | Myke Cole | Red Noise; The Phlebotomist; The Rush’s Edge; Refraction; Bystander 27; The Aleph Extraction; The Light Years |
| Mystery & Thriller | The Missing American | Kwei Quartey | The Delightful Life of a Suicide Pilot; Death of a Telenovela Star; That Left Turn at Albuquerque; The Sleeping Nymph; Death on Tuckernuck; Winter Grave; Snowdrift |
| Biography | Being Heumann | Judith Heumann | The Taste of Longing; Cyrus the Great; Fearless; How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences; The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland; Lincoln’s First Crisis; Tastes Like War |
| History | The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland | James H. Madison | America’s National Historic Trails; Lincoln’s First Crisis; The Taste of Longing; How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences; Being Heumann; Cyrus the Great; Fearless |
| Self-Help | We Are the Luckiest | Laura McKowen | Radical Belonging; Develop; Bigger, Better, Braver; Whatever Works; Quiet Is a Superpower; The New Adulting Playbook; Outsmart Your Anxious Brain |
| Business | Invisible Solutions | Stephen Shapiro | Lunch with Lucy; Elevated Economics; Bridging Differences for Better Mentoring; Develop; Bigger, Better, Braver; Whatever Works; Quiet Is a Superpower |
| Young Adult | We Are the Ashes, We Are the Fire | Joy McCullough | Kid Sterling; The Camino Club; A Light in the Sky; The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit; The Lady or the Lion; Daughter of the Salt King; Lucid Design |
| Children’s | Stargazing | Jen Wang | A Letter from Tashi; Jazz Fly 3: The Caribbean Sea; The Tiny Giant; The Wizenard Series: Season One; Gobbledy; Dragon Ryder; The Perfect Season |
| Poetry | Obit | Victoria Chang | Still Life with Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl; Olio; Heaven; How to Love a Country; Ordinary Cruelty; In the Watchful World; The Long Devotion |
| Science & Nature | The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another | Ainissa Ramirez | Electric Brain: How the New Science of Brainwaves Reads Minds, Tells Us How We Learn, and Helps Us Change for the Better; Tree Story: The History of the World Written in Rings; Wolf Island: Discovering the Secrets of a Mythic Animal; Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of Their Common Fate; The Good Ancestor: A Radical Prescription for Long-Term Thinking; The Story of CO2: Big Ideas for a Small Molecule; Cyber Privacy: Who Has Your Data and Why You Should Care |
| Philosophy | The Good Ancestor: A Radical Prescription for Long-Term Thinking | Roman Krznaric | Cyber Privacy: Who Has Your Data and Why You Should Care; How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason; The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another; Reclaiming the Commons: Community Farms and Forests in a New England Town; Present through the End: A Caring Companion’s Guide for Accompanying the Dying; Salt Houses; A Theology of Liberation |
2019
| Genre | Meridian Award Winner | Author | Meridian Honors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Literary Fiction | Hurricane Season | Fernanda Melchor | Normal People; Mostly Dead Things; The Need; Patsy; Writers & Lovers; Happiness, as Such; Naamah |
| Science Fiction | The Light Brigade | Kameron Hurley | The Outside; The Bayern Agenda; The Imaginary Corpse; The Heart of the Circle; Shrouded Loyalties; The Resurrectionist of Caligo; The Ingenious |
| Mystery & Thriller | Flowers Over the Inferno | Ilaria Tuti | Hunting Game; The Satapur Moonstone; The Second Biggest Nothing; Lives Laid Away; Queen of Bones; Murder in Bel-Air; The Line |
| Biography | In the Dream House | Carmen Maria Machado | Yves Saint Laurent; A Forgotten Hero; From Chernobyl with Love; Where War Ends; In My Own Moccasins; The Lost Books of Jane Austen; March 1917 |
| History | March 1917 | Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn | The Lost Books of Jane Austen; The Kosher Capones; From Chernobyl with Love; In My Own Moccasins; A Forgotten Hero; Where War Ends; In the Dream House |
| Self-Help | Maybe You Should Talk to Someone | Lori Gottlieb | The More or Less Definitive Guide to Self-Care; Panic Free; Beneath the Surface; The Freelance Academic; The 20-Minute Networking Meeting: Veterans Edition; Success Freak; The Anxiety and Worry Workbook |
| Business | Indistractable | Nir Eyal | DataStory; The Disruption Mindset; How to Be an Inclusive Leader; The Freelance Academic; The 20-Minute Networking Meeting: Veterans Edition; Success Freak; The Proximity Principle |
| Young Adult | Raybearer | Jordan Ifueko | Waiting for Fitz; The Next to Last Mistake; Bobby Ether and the Jade Academy; Street of Storytellers; From Darkness; I’m Not Dying with You Tonight; Cemetery Boys |
| Children’s | Prairie Lotus | Linda Sue Park | Jack & Agyu: A Story About Finding Your Way; The Artist Who Loved Cats; What Does It Mean to Be American?; Beverly, Right Here; Rabbit and Bear: Rabbit’s Bad Habits; Silent Lee and the Adventure of the Side Door Key; Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls |
| Poetry | Deaf Republic | Ilya Kaminsky | Bestiary; Tender; An Ordinary Country; Recency Bias; I Don’t Miss It; Featherweight; Totem Figures |
| Science & Nature | Superlative: The Biology of Extremes | Matthew LaPlante | Humanure Handbook: Shit in a Nutshell, 4th Edition; Bringing Back the Birds: Exploring Migration and the Importance of the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network; The Salmon Way: An Alaska State of Mind; The Secret Lives of Glaciers; Lost Feast: Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food; Re-Bisoning the West: Restoring an American Icon; The Big Thaw: Ancient Carbon, Modern Science, and the Race to Save the World |
| Philosophy | No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison | Behrouz Boochani | Revolution of Values: Reclaiming Public Faith for the Common Good; Shut It Down: Stories from a Fierce, Loving Resistance; The Torture Machine: Racism and Police Violence in Chicago; Elegant Simplicity: The Art of Living Well; On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts; Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life; How to Be an Inclusive Leader: Your Role in Creating Cultures of Belonging Where Everyone Can Thrive |
2018
| Genre | Meridian Award Winner | Author | Meridian Honors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Literary Fiction | Freshwater | Akwaeke Emezi | She Would Be King; A Lucky Man; The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish; Never Anyone But You; In the Full Light of the Sun; Scribe; The Glitch |
| Science Fiction | Quietus | Tristan Palmgren | Moonshine; Blood Binds the Pack; Smoke Eaters; The Body Library; Space Unicorn Blues; Implanted; Daughters of Forgotten Light |
| Mystery & Thriller | The Widows of Malabar Hill | Sujata Massey | Death Comes in through the Kitchen; Cult X; Don’t Eat Me; London Rules; Under the Cold Bright Lights; Diary of a Dead Man on Leave; The Dark Clouds Shining |
| Biography | Heart Berries | Terese Marie Mailhot | Eric Stanton and the History of the Bizarre Underground; Building the Modern World; Retablos; The Right to Be Cold; The Coming of the Celts, AD 1860; I Too Sing America; The Cost of Living |
| History | I Too Sing America | Wil Haygood | The Coming of the Celts, AD 1860; Building the Modern World; Retablos; The Right to Be Cold; Through a Long Absence; A Mother’s Tale; Heart Berries |
| Self-Help | Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness | David Treleaven | Mike & Me; Braided; The Aging of Aquarius; Be More Strategic in Business; The Art & Craft of PR; How to Create a $1,000,000 Speech; The Successful Mind |
| Business | The Power of Vulnerability | Brené Brown | How To Wash A Chicken; Hire Your Dream Team; A Finer Future; Be More Strategic in Business; The Art & Craft of PR; How to Create a $1,000,000 Speech; The Leader Habit |
| Young Adult | The Poet X | Elizabeth Acevedo | Hearts Unbroken; In Other Lands; The Leaving Year; Love, Hate and Other Filters; Furyborn; Fireborne; Children of Blood and Bone |
| Children’s | Dragon Pearl | Yoon Ha Lee | Nita’s First Signs; Some Secrets Should Never Be Kept; A Monster Like Me; Hello, I’m Here!; The Eye of Zeus; The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles; All the Impossible Things |
| Poetry | The Carrying | Ada Limón | Felon; In the Language of My Captor; Simulacra; Spit Temple: Selected Performances; American Estrogen; Candy and Bullets; Otherwise Smooth |
| Science & Nature | Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land | Leah Penniman | When the Uncertainty Principle Goes to 11: Or How to Explain Quantum Physics with Heavy Metal; Laika’s Window: The Legacy of a Soviet Space Dog; Path of the Puma: The Remarkable Resilience of the Mountain Lion; Endangered and Disappearing Birds of the Midwest; Caribou Rainforest: From Heartland to Hinterland; Climate-Wise Landscaping: Practical Actions for a Sustainable Future; A Finer Future: Creating an Economy in Service to Life |
| Philosophy | Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises (and Essays) | Rebecca Solnit | Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump; The Age of Overwhelm: Strategies for the Long Haul; Disruptive Play: The Trickster in Politics and Culture; Psychedelic Revolutionaries: Three Medical Pioneers, the Fall of Hallucinogenic Research and Its Sensational Revival; To Lose the Madness: Field Notes on Trauma, Loss, and Radical Empathy; Freedom Fighters and Hell Raisers: A Gallery of North Carolina Profiles; Mine: Essays |
2017
| Genre | Meridian Award Winner | Author | Meridian Honors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Literary Fiction | Her Body and Other Parties | Carmen Maria Machado | Compass; The Leavers; Fen; Difficult Women; A Kind of Freedom; Stephen Florida; Seeing People Off |
| Science Fiction | Under the Pendulum Sun | Jeannette Ng | Hunger Makes the Wolf; The Wrong Stars; The Uploaded; An Oath of Dogs; A Man of Shadows; The Rebellion’s Last Traitor; Children of the Divide |
| Mystery & Thriller | Real Tigers | Mick Herron | Spook Street; August Snow; The Rat Catchers’ Olympics; Death by His Grace; Cruel Is the Night; Fools’ River; For Time and All Eternities |
| Biography | Maximum Volume | Kenneth Womack | Through a Long Absence; Jackie Robinson; A Mother’s Tale; This Is Just My Face; Necessary to Life; Self-Portrait with Dogwood; Hummingbird |
| History | Detroit 1967 | Joel Stone | The Truth of the Russian Revolution; Beauty in the City; A Hero for the Americas; Spirit in the Rock; Maximum Volume; Jackie Robinson; Self-Portrait with Dogwood |
| Self-Help | Bearing the Unbearable | Joanne Cacciatore | Wild Ideas; Prisoners of Our Thoughts; How You Learn Is How You Live; The Wisdom of Not Knowing; Ask Outrageously!; The Academic Gateway; Always Eat Left Handed |
| Business | Humility Is the New Smart | Edward Hess and Katherine Ludwig | Wealth by Virtue; Plan Commit Win; Pacing for Growth; Set for Life; Ask Outrageously!; The Academic Gateway; Always Eat Left Handed |
| Young Adult | History Is All You Left Me | Adam Silvera | The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths & Magic; Grrrls on the Side; Starswept; The Big Lie; The Bone Witch; Before I Had the Words; Seeking Mansfield |
| Children’s | Remarkable Minds | Stacy McAnulty | Blackberries and Cream; A Wild Ride; Guardian of the Gold Breathers; The Hunter’s Promise; Bounce Back; Elizabeth’s Constellation Quilt; The Legend of L’il Red |
| Poetry | Don’t Call Us Dead | Danez Smith | Hard Child; Field Music; the mother country; Anagnorisis; Overpour; Phantom Limb; A Common Strangeness |
| Science & Nature | A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes | Adam Rutherford | The Driver in the Driverless Car: How Our Technology Choices Will Create the Future; How to Read Nature: Awaken Your Senses to the Outdoors; A Temporary Refuge: Photographs from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; Tracking Gobi Grizzlies: Surviving Beyond the Back of Beyond; Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution; Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean; This Phenomenal Life: The Amazing Ways We Are Connected with Our Universe |
| Philosophy | Heretics! The Wondrous (and Dangerous) Beginnings of Modern Philosophy | Steven Nadler, Ben Nadler | Alan Watts: In the Academy; Edgar Allan Poe, Eureka, and Scientific Imagination; Your Evolving Soul: The Cosmic Spirituality of the Urantia Book; Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution; The Driver in the Driverless Car: How Our Technology Choices Will Create the Future; The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality; I Want You to Be: On the God of Love |
2016
| Genre | Meridian Award Winner | Author | Meridian Honors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Literary Fiction | Do Not Say We Have Nothing | Madeleine Thien | All That Man Is; The Natural Way of Things; His Bloody Project; The Reactive; Relief Map; Eleven Hours; Death by Water |
| Science Fiction | United States of Japan | Peter Tieryas | Steal the Sky; The Destructives; The Rise of Io; Necrotech; Binary Storm; Like a Boss; An Accident of Stars |
| Mystery & Thriller | What My Body Remembers | Agnete Friis | So Say the Fallen; I Shot the Buddha; Incensed; The Hot Countries; Gold of Our Fathers; Murder on the Left Bank; His Right Hand |
| Biography | The 1916 Irish Rebellion | Briona Nic Dhiarmada | Such Mad Fun; Levi Strauss; Worst. President. Ever.; Girl; Girl Walks out of a Bar; My Sister’s Mother; The Sea Is Quiet Tonight |
| History | The 1916 Irish Rebellion | Briona Nic Dhiarmada | The Texas Frontier and the Butterfield Overland Mail; No Day Shall Erase You; A Medieval Woman’s Companion; Levi Strauss; Girl; My Sister’s Mother; Such Mad Fun |
| Self-Help | Note to Self | Connor Franta | The Gift of Hard Things; Scared Speechless; Cyber Crisis; The Tao of Running; Power Your Career; Ace Your Teacher Interview; LinkedIn in 30 Minutes |
| Business | The Coaching Habit | Michael Bungay Stanier | Mobilized; The Journey of Not Knowing; Next Generation Leaders; Tools for Grassroots Activists; Power Your Career; Job Hunting Ninja Master 2017; Ace Your Teacher Interview |
| Young Adult | The Sun Is Also a Star | Nicola Yoon | Shadows of the Sun Dynasty; This Is Not the End; The Secrets of Love and Death; Consider; Operation Tenley; Everything, Everything; Noteworthy |
| Children’s | Rad American Women A-Z | Kate Schatz | The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch; The Dog That Nino Didn’t Have; Prison Island; The Green Musician; Foodprints; Give Me Wings!; Curious Critters Marine |
| Poetry | Night Sky with Exit Wounds | Ocean Vuong | Ordinary Beast; Trouble the Water; Without Ceremony; A Sand Book; No Object; The Book of Endings; I Was the Jukebox |
| Science & Nature | The Sting of the Wild | Justin O. Schmidt | The Aliens Are Coming! The Extraordinary Science Behind Our Search for Life in the Universe; How to Read Water: Clues and Patterns from Puddles to the Sea; A Global Warming Primer: Answering Your Questions about the Science, the Consequences, and the Solutions; The Permaculture Promise: What Permaculture Is and How It Can Help Us Reverse Climate Change; Wolf Land; When Mountain Lions Are Neighbors: People and Wildlife Working It Out in California; Treasured Lands: A Photographic Odyssey through America’s National Parks |
| Philosophy | I Want You to Be: On the God of Love | Tomas Halik | What Is Reality?: The New Map of Cosmos, Consciousness, and Existence; Kant’s Philosophy of Communication; Alan Watts: In the Academy; Heretics! The Wondrous (and Dangerous) Beginnings of Modern Philosophy; Edgar Allan Poe, Eureka, and Scientific Imagination; The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man; Your Evolving Soul: The Cosmic Spirituality of the Urantia Book |
2015
| Genre | Meridian Award Winner | Author | Meridian Honors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Literary Fiction | The Story of the Lost Child | Elena Ferrante | All My Puny Sorrows; Binary Star; The Only Ones; The Scamp; Good on Paper; The Hired Man; Wylding Hall |
| Science Fiction | Apex | Ramez Naam | Flex; Windswept; The Ark; If Then; Empire Ascendant; Cities and Thrones; The Flux |
| Mystery & Thriller | Those We Left Behind | Stuart Neville | Six and a Half Deadly Sins; Down Among the Dead Men; The Bishop’s Wife; Murder on the Champ de Mars; The Fear Artist; Dragon Day; Death on Delos |
| Biography | My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me | Jennifer Teege and Nikola Sellmair | Young Jane Austen; Joe; Living Large; John Bartlow Martin; Hidden Inheritance; Witness to Change; The Girls of Usually |
| History | On Stalin’s Team | Sheila Fitzpatrick | Exodus!; At Home in the Revolution; Junipero Serra: California, Indians, and the Transformation of a Missionary; Pauline Frederick Reporting; John Bartlow Martin; Hidden Inheritance; Witness to Change |
| Self-Help | Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls | Jes Baker | The Self-Help Guide for Teens with Dyslexia; The Power of 10; Sustainable Happiness; The 5 AM Miracle; Got Your Attention?; Creating Your First Resume; Shifting Gears To Your Career Working Online |
| Business | Mastering Leadership | Robert J. Anderson and William A. Adams | Meetings Matter; Your Own Terms; On Fire at Work; Hidden Solutions All Around You; Got Your Attention?; Creating Your First Resume; The Ordinary Leader |
| Young Adult | More Happy Than Not | Adam Silvera | As the Poppies Bloomed; Breath to Breath; Shattered Blue; South of Everything; Summer Love; Lily Harp; Ghostboy, Chameleon & the Duke of Graffiti |
| Children’s | Juneteenth for Mazie | Floyd Cooper | Scrap City; Nobody!; Charlotte and the Quiet Place; Timmy Failure: Sanitized for Your Protection; The Gift of Sunderland; The Lost Castle Treasure; The Coal Thief |
| Poetry | Bright Dead Things | Ada Limón | War of the Foxes; What About This: Collected Poems of Frank Stanford; Slow Lightning; Canticle of the Night Path; The Long Take; The Small Door of Your Death; Surrounded by Friends |
| Science & Nature | GMO Sapiens: The Life-Changing Science of Designer Babies | Paul Knoepfler | Building the H Bomb: A Personal History; From the Great Wall to the Great Collider: China and the Quest to Uncover the Inner Workings of the Universe; Stem Cell Battles: Proposition 71 and Beyond; Our Sea Turtles: A Practical Guide for the Atlantic and Gulf; Ocean Country: One Woman’s Voyage from Peril to Hope in Her Quest to Save the Seas; The Sustainability Secret: Rethinking Our Diet to Transform the World; Birth, Death, and a Tractor: Memories from a Family Farm |
| Philosophy | Heretics! The Wondrous (and Dangerous) Beginnings of Modern Philosophy | Steven Nadler, Ben Nadler | Respecting Truth: Willful Ignorance in the Internet Age; I Want You to Be: On the God of Love; Your Evolving Soul: The Cosmic Spirituality of the Urantia Book; Alan Watts: In the Academy; Edgar Allan Poe, Eureka, and Scientific Imagination; Kant’s Philosophy of Communication; What Is Reality?: The New Map of Cosmos, Consciousness, and Existence |