The Booksellers Association (BA) has unveiled the shortlisted titles for this year’s Indie Book Awards, judged by and given on behalf of independent bookshops.

With a judging panel of independent booksellers deciding the four category winners, to be announced on Thursday 18th June during Independent Bookshop Week, the Indie Book Awards aims to celebrate and exemplify the “historic, close and mutually beneficial relationship between authors and illustrators, and bookshops, and their unrivalled combined power to put the best books into the hands and minds of as many readers as possible”.

Emma Bradshaw, Head of Campaigns at the BA, commented: “At the Booksellers Association, we are continually inspired by the affinity between authors and illustrators, and independent booksellers, working together to match exceptional books with the readers who will love them most. It is a unique partnership and one that sits at the heart of everything we do.

“It is therefore always a delight to reveal the shortlist for the Indie Book Awards, giving us the opportunity to celebrate that partnership on a national stage and shine a light on some of the most compelling books of the summer. Against the backdrop of the National Year of Reading, this work takes on added resonance, reflecting a shared commitment to embedding reading for pleasure within everyday culture and ensuring independent bookshops remain central to how readers discover, share and fall in love with books.”

The Fiction Prize Shortlist

In contention for the Fiction Prize are:

Katabasis by RF Kuang

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis

The Names by Florence Knapp

Muckle Flugga by Michael Pedersen 

The Non-Fiction Prize Shortlist

Meanwhile, shortlisted works in the non-fiction category are:

Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane

Careless People: A Story of Where I Used to Work by Sarah Wynn-Williams

Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal: My Adventures in Neurodiversity by Robin Ince

Minority Rule: Adventures in the Culture War by Ash Sarkar 

Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy

The New Age of Sexism: How the AI Revolution is Reinventing Misogyny by Laura Bates 

The adult categories judging panel consists of Leslie Legget (First Draft Books), Jack Mountford (Paper Moon), Pao Salcedo (Lighthouse, Edinburgh’s Radical Bookshop), Dawn Williams (Chapters Bookstore) and Sadie Young (Chepstow Books & Gifts). 

The Children's Fiction Shortlist

The children’s fiction shortlist includes:

Tiny Hercules by Jon Lock and Nich Angell

Quill and the Last Generation by CM Lewis, illustrated by Marina Vidal

Donut Squad: Make a Mess! by Neill Cameron

Finn’s Epic Fails by Phil Earle, illustrated by Al Murphy

Like a Brother by Nathanael Lessore

Crow: Thief of Magic by Fiona Dixon 

The Picture Book Shortlist

Shortlisted for the picture book prize are:

Frank and Bert: The One Where Bert Is Scared of Frogs by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros

We Grew a Dragon by Emma Chinnery

Mouse by the Sea by Alice Melvin

Hank Meets Frank by Maudie Powell-Tuck, illustrated by Duncan Beedie

Fox and the Mystery Letter by Alex G Griffiths

Judging the children’s categories are Dan Fridd (Bookbugs and Dragon Tales), Elaine Sinclair (Daydreams Bookshop), Alison Brumwell (The Little Bookshop, Leeds), Sanchita Basu De Sarkar (The Children’s Bookshop, Muswell Hill) and McKenna Adare (O’Mahony’s).