Annual People's Choice Awards

Crowd shot at 2024 Literary 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. The People's Choice winners are selected by readers through a secure online voting portal.

Winners will be announced at the 29th Annual Virginia Literary Awards Celebration, the Commonwealth’s biggest night honoring its authors and their stories, on Sept. 19, 2026.

Select this year's winners by voting between June 1 and July 15, 2026:

VOTE

2026 People’s Choice Awards Fiction Finalists

David Baldacci,
Strangers in Time: A World War II Novel
S.A. Cosby,
King of Ashes
Virginia Evans,
The Correspondent
Bruce Holsinger,
Culpability
Corinne Michaels,
All Too Well
Adriana Trigiani,
The View from Lake Como

2026 People’s Choice Awards Nonfiction Finalists

Stephen Starring Grant,
Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home
Jane Harrington,
Women of The Fairy Tale Resistance: The Forgotten Founding Mothers of the Fairy Tale And the Stories That They Spun
Andrew Lawler,
A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis That Spurred the American Revolution
Douglas Waller,
The Determined Spy: The Turbulent Life and Times of CIA Pioneer Frank Wisner
Paula Whyman,
Bad Naturalist: One Woman's Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop
Gerri Willis,
Lincoln's Lady Spymaster: The Untold Story of the Abolitionist Southern Belle Who Helped Win the Civil War
VOTE

2025 People’s Choice Awards Fiction Finalists

Danielle Allen, author, poses in front of a bookshelf. The cover of "Curvy Girl Summer" has a man and woman in front of a purple bar scene background. The woman wears a yellow dress and looks at her phone.
Danielle Allen,
Curvy Girl Summer
Yasmin Angoe, author, sits casually at a wooden table. The cover of "Not What She Seems" is a mysterious night scene with a woman's silhouette inside a house.
Yasmin Angoe,
Not What She Seems
David Baldacci, author, poses casually in jeans and a blazer. The cover of "A Calamity of Souls" is a vibrant sunset sky over a county courthouse with white text.
David Baldacci,
A Calamity of Souls
WINNER
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
Alex Finlay, author, poses in all black on a Paris street with the Eiffel Tower in the background. The cover of "If Something Happens to Me" is blue text on the image of a back of a tattered envelope.
Alex Finlay,
If Something Happens to Me

2025 People’s Choice Awards Nonfiction Finalists

Alan Pell Crawford, author, in a suit with a red tie in front of a black background. The cream-colored cover of "This Fierce People" has black text with a Revolutionary War battle scene in the lower third.
Alan Pell Crawford,
This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America's Revolutionary War in the South
Evan Friss, author, in a plaid shirt in front of a wooded background. The cover of "The Bookshop" has the title painted on a shop window, with a cozy scene of lamps and bookshelves inside.
Evan Friss,
The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore
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
Heath Hardage Lee, author, sits on a vintage settee in a green dress. The cover of "The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon" has a black and white photograph of the presidential couple with white block text.
Heath Hardage Lee,
The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington's Most Private First Lady
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

View a list of past People's Choice winners and finalists:

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