Virginia Literary Awards

Crowd shot at 2024 Literary Awards

Save the Date for the 2026 Virginia Literary Awards on Saturday, September 19, 2026.

The Virginia Literary Awards honor Virginia writers and celebrate their contributions to the literary landscape of our state and nation. Given to Virginia authors in the categories of poetry, children's literature, fiction, and nonfiction—and to nonfiction authors for works about a Virginia subject as well—the awards are presented at an annual gala celebration that has become the Library's signature event and an eagerly anticipated cultural tradition in Richmond.

While the main award recipients are selected by independent panels of judges, the Library also invites book lovers and readers to nominate and then vote for their favorite works for the People's Choice Awards.

The Library also partners each year with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to present the Art in Literature: The Mary Lynn Kotz Award.

Also presented during the Virginia Literary Awards is the Honorary Patron of Letters Degree, which recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions in the realm of history, or library or archival science.

Virginia Literary Awards

The annual Virginia Literary Awards honor Virginia writers and celebrate their contributions to the literary landscape of our state and nation. Given to Virginia authors in the categories of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction—and to nonfiction authors for works about a Virginia subject as well—the awards are presented at an annual gala celebration that has become the Library’s signature event and an eagerly anticipated cultural tradition in Richmond.

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Nominations

Books published in the previous year qualify as submissions, assuming they meet all other criteria. Guidelines and submission forms for the 2026 Literary Awards and Mary Lynn Kotz Art in Literature Award are now available.

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Past Winners

The Virginia Literary Awards are given to outstanding Virginia authors in the areas of poetry, fiction, nonfiction (and, in the case of nonfiction, also by any author about a Virginia subject), children's literature and literary lifetime achievement.

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People's Choice Awards

The Library of Virginia established the People's Choice Awards in 2004 to give readers an opportunity to share their enthusiasm for favorite works by Virginia authors and on Virginia topics. Finalists for the People's Choice Awards are selected from the books nominated for the annual Virginia Literary Awards.

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Children's Virginia Literary Award

The Children's Virginia Literary Award honors excellence in the field of children's literature with a focus on Virginia. Picture books and middle-grade works (recommended reading levels of up to age 12) of both fiction and nonfiction are eligible.

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Art in Literature Award

Art in Literature: The Mary Lynn Kotz Award recognizes an outstanding book that is written primarily in response to a work (or works) of art while also showing the highest literary quality as a creative or scholarly work on its own merit. 

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Honorary Patron of Letters Degree

The Library of Virginia's Patron of Letters degree is the agency's highest honor. The ability to grant this honorary degree is given by the Commonwealth of Virginia to the Library Board in order to recognize individuals who have made outstanding contributions in the realm of history, or library or archival science.

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2026 Virginia Literary Award Finalists

Fiction Finalists

Bruce Holsinger
Culpability
Kevin Moffett
Only Son
Princess Joy L. Perry
This Here Is Love

Nonfiction Finalists

Deborah Baker
Charlottesville: An American Story
Stephen Starring Grant
Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home
Beth Macy
Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America

Poetry Finalists

Gbenga Adesina
Death Does Not End at the Sea
Latorial Faison
Nursery Rhymes in Black: Poems
MaKshya Tolbert
Shade is a place

Children's Literature Finalists

The Children's Virginia Literary Award is presented in partnership with William & Mary Libraries.

Tom Angleberger
Two-Headed Chicken: Chaos in the Cosmic Library
Kris Coronado
Lighthouse Ladies
Meg Medina
Graciela in the Abyss

Art In Literature: The Mary Lynn Kotz Award

The Mary Lynn Kotz Award, sponsored by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Library of Virginia, recognizes an outstanding book published in the previous year that is written primarily in response to a work (or works) of art while also showing the highest literary quality as a creative or scholarly work. Submissions can include works of journalism, poetry, fiction, biography or history, as well as museum exhibition catalogs. Established in 2013, the award is named in honor of Mary Lynn Kotz, author of the award-winning biography “Rauschenberg: A Life.”

2026 Kotz Award Recipient

The Library of Virginia and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts are pleased to announce that novelist and biographer Sue Prideaux has been chosen as this year’s recipient of the Art in Literature: The Mary Lynn Kotz Award for her book “Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin” (W.W. Norton, 2025). Prideaux will be honored at a special reception at the VMFA on Friday, Sept. 18, and during the 29th Annual Virginia Literary Awards Celebration at the Library on Saturday, Sept. 19.

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Author Sue Prideaux stands against a white background wearing a black sweater

Past Finalists & Winners

The 2025 finalists in each category are listed below, with the winner noted.

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2025 Virginia Literary Award Finalists & Winners

Fiction Finalists

Isabel Banta, author, poses in front of an evergreen tree. The cover of her novel "Honey" is on the right: a bubblegum pink background with two reflective compact discs and white text.
Isabel Banta,
Honey
WINNER
Christopher Tilghman, author, poses in front of bookshelves. The cover of his novel "On the Tobacco Coast" is on the right, showing an aerial view of blue waterways and green land formations.
Christopher Tilghman,
On the Tobacco Coast
John Vercher, author, poses in a gray shirt in front of a blurred greenery background. The cover of his novel, "Devil is Fine," is on the right: two jellyfish float against a cream background with black text.
John Vercher,
Devil is Fine

Nonfiction Finalists

Justine Hill Edwards, author, smiles warmly in front of gray background. The cover of "Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank" is shown on the right.
Justene Hill Edwards,
Savings and Trust:
The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank
WINNER
Erika Howsare, author, poses in nature and smiles serenely. The cover of her novel "The Age of Deer: Trouble and Kinship with our Wild Neighbors" has a green background and three stylized deer.
Erika Howsare,
The Age of Deer:
Trouble and Kinship with our Wild Neighbors
Earl Swift, author, looks directly at the camera. The cover of "Hell Put to Shame" is an ominous dark cloud over a cotton field.
Earl Swift,
Hell Put to Shame:
The 1921 Murder Farm Massacre and the
Horror of America’s Second Slavery

Poetry Finalists

Remica Bingham-Risher, author, smiles broadly in professional portrait. The cover of "Room Swept Home" is on the right, with a painted pastoral background, collaged images of a cabin, row boat, three women, and flowers.
Remica Bingham-Risher,
Room Swept Home
Jennifer Chang, author, wears grey shirt in front of muted background. The cover of "An Authentic Life" has an empty white room with skylights showing a blue sky.
Jennifer Chang,
An Authentic Life
WINNER
January Gill O'Neil, author, poses outside. The cover of "Glitter Road" shows colorful and complex curved paths on Harold Fisk’s Meander Maps of the Mississippi River.
January Gill O'Neil,
Glitter Road

Children's Literature Finalists

Kwame Alexander, author, in a white collared shirt against a muted background. The cover of "Black Star" shows three children running across a bridge. The central figure is a Black girl in overalls and a red cap holding a baseball.
Kwame Alexander,
Black Star
Carter Higgins, author, in a back and white striped shirt against an aqua background. The cover of "Round and Round the Year We go" has the faces of four children and two animals in a simple, playful drawing style on a white background.
Carter Higgins,
Round and Round the Year We Go
WINNER
Joanna Lapati, author, poses in front of bookshelves. The cover of "Guts for Glory: The Story of Civil War Soldier Rosetta Wakeman" shows a saluting soldier in front of a faded handwritten letter.
JoAnna Lapati,
Guts for Glory: The Story of Civil War Soldier Rosetta Wakeman