The Chicago Review of Books is proud to announce the shortlist for the 2026 Chicago Review of Books (CHIRBy) Awards!
Since 2016, the CHIRBy Awards have honored the best fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and short essay and stories that feature Chicago and our strong literary community—with past winners including authors such as Eve L. Ewing, Ling Ma, Rebecca Makkai, Erika L. Sánchez, and more. Find a full list of past winners here.
Eligible titles included works published between September 1, 2025 and September 1, 2026 that were either written by authors living in the Chicagoland area or titles in which Chicago plays a prominent role. The awards are voted on by a jury of Chicago booksellers and the Chicago Review of Books staff.
The winners in all four categories will be announced at the CHIRBy Awards! Save the date for Thursday, December 3 as we come together with StoryStudio Chicago and the brightest stars in publishing today at the Fine Arts Building to celebrate the past year in writing. Get your tickets today!
2026 FICTION SHORTLIST
Tenderness
By Rowan Beaird
Flatiron Books
Kaplan’s Plot
By Jason Diamond
Flatiron Books
The Hitch
By Sara Levine
Roxane Gay Books
Every Exit Brings You Home
By Naeem Murr
W.W. Norton & Company
It Came From Neverland
By Cynthia Pelayo
Crooked Lane Books
Man Overboard!
By Kathleen Rooney
Gallery Books
Majestic Hills
By Dawn Turner
Scribner
2026 NONFICTION SHORTLIST
No Stars in Jefferson Park
By Maggie Andersen
Northwestern University Press
Body Weather: Notes on Chronic Illness in the Anthropocene
By Lorraine Boissoneault
Beacon Press
Great Lake: An Unnatural History of Lake Michigan
By Theodore J Karamanski
University of Michigan Regional
Partially Devoured: How Night of the Living Dead Saved My Life and Changed the World
By Daniel Kraus
Counterpoint
Fire and Clay: How Bricks Reveal the Hidden History of Chicago
By Will Quam
University of Chicago Press
2026 POETRY SHORTLIST
E
By Noa Micaela Fields
Nightboat Books
The Bronze Arms
By Richie Hofmann
Knopf
Be Easy
By Adrian Matejka
Liveright Publishing Corporation
Bisquick: An American Seance
By C. Russell Price
Triquarterly Books
Orange
By Noel Quiñones
CavanKerry Press
2026 ESSAY SHORTLIST
“The Case for a Parking Revolt”
By Tal Rosenberg
Chicago Magazine
“The last days of Legion Park, before the city swept it”
By Katie Prout
Chicago Reader
“Inside the Chicago Courier Classic, bike messenger culture refuses to die”
By Andrew Stojkovich
Chicago Reader
“Chicago Under Siege: How Operation Midway Blitz Changed Our City”
By Francia García Hernández, Madison Savedra, and Block Club Chicago Staff
Block Club Chicago
“Chicago, ICE, and the Lie of the American Pastoral”
By Lauren Michele Jackson
The New Yorker
2026 SHORTLIST JUDGES
Chair
Michael Welch, Editor-In-Chief
Booksellers
- Ren Dean, Skunk Cabbage Books
- Rebecca George, Lit Circle
- Sarah Hollenbeck, Women & Children First
- Stephanie Kitchen, City Lit Books
- Mandy Medley, Pilsen Community Books
- Kristin Ramirez, Exile in Bookville
- Suzy Takacs, The Book Cellar
- Time and a Half Books
- Timothy Wurman, Three Avenues Bookshop
- Hannah Madonia, Seminary Co-Op
Chicago Review of Books Staff
- Rachel León, Managing Director
- Adam Morgan, Founding Editor
- Sara Cutaia, Editor-at-Large
- Reema Saleh, Daily Editor
- Victor Ladis Schultz, Daily Editor
- Jen St. Jude, Editor-at-Large
- Greg Zimmerman, Daily Editor & Roscoe Books Bookseller
- Karen Bellovich, Daily Editor
- Cait O’Neill, Daily Editor
- Aaron Wolfson, Daily Editor
