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Here Are The Winners Of The 2018 Kirkus Prizes

Ling Ma's debut, Severance, won for fiction. Crown earned Derrick Barnes and Gordon James the young readers' prize. And Rebecca Solnit's essays, Call Them by Their True Names, won nonfiction laurels.
The 2018 Kirkus Prize winners (from left to right): <em>Severance</em>, by Ling Ma; <em>Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut</em>, by Derrick Barnes and Gordon C. James;<em> Call Them by Their True Names</em>, by Rebecca Solnit.

Three books have emerged with one of the world's most lucrative literary awards. At a ceremony Thursday in Austin, Texas, judges named the winners of the Kirkus Prize — the select few plucked from among 1,193 books published in the past year.

Ling Ma's novel took home the prize, an essay collection by Rebecca Solnit, won in the nonfiction category. And the picture book earned the young readers' literature prize for author Derrick Barnes and illustrator Gordon C. James.

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