The Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize

Brooklyn Public Library is thrilled to announce the winners of the 2024 BPL Book Prize!

Each year Brooklyn Public Library honors outstanding works of nonfiction and fiction with a prize given in the fall. Selected by librarians and library staff, who draw on their broad knowledge of literature and the many populations they serve, the BPL Book Prize recognizes writing that captures the spirit of Brooklyn, one of the most socially and culturally diverse communities in the country. 

2024 Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize 

Fiction Winner

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (Knopf)

Nonfiction Winner

Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class by Blair L.M. Kelley (Liveright)

Fiction Shortlist

Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck (Marysue Rucci Books)

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (Knopf)

James by Percival Everett (Doubleday)

Nonfiction Shortlist

How to Say Babylon: A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair (37 Ink)

Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class by Blair L.M. Kelley (Liveright)

Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against "The Apocalypse" by Emily Raboteau (Henry Holt & Company)

Fiction Longlist

Between Two Moons by Aisha Abdel Gawad (Vintage)

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (Knopf)

Mister, Mister by Guy Gunaratne (Pantheon)

The Golem of Brooklyn by Adam Mansbach Dean (One World) 

Witness: Stories by Jamel Brinkley (FSG)

And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott (Dutton)

Brooklyn Crime Novel by Jonathan Lethem (Ecco)

Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck (Marysue Rucci Books)

James by Percival Everett (Doubleday)

Bellies by Nicola Dinan (Hanover Square Press)

Nonfiction Longlist

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis by Jonathan Blitzer (Penguin Press)

What We Remember Will Be Saved: A Story of Refugees and the Things They Carry by Stephanie Saldaña (Broadleaf Books)

How to Say Babylon: A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair (37 Ink)

Postcards from the Underworld: Poems by Sinan Antoon (The University of Chicago Press)

There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraquib (Random House)

Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class by Blair L.M. Kelley (Liveright)

Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against "The Apocalypse" by Emily Raboteau (Henry Holt & Company)

The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture by Courtney Thorsson (Columbia University Press)

Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal by Bettina L. Love (St. Martin's Press)

The Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize was established in 2015 by the Brooklyn Eagles, a group of young and engaged Brooklynites who are passionate about Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) and work to engage new patrons, promote the Library as a cultural center, and build a vibrant community around the resources the library offers.

The Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize is generously underwritten by the Peck Stacpoole Foundation