Enormous congratulations to Loubna Mrie and Daniyal Mueenuddin, whose books—Defiance: A Memoir of Awakening, Rebellion, and Survival in Syria and This Is Where the Serpent Lives—are finalists for the 2026 Kirkus Prize, in the Nonfiction and Fiction categories, respectively!
In a statement, Kirkus Editor-in-Chief Tom Beer writes, “This year’s slate of prize finalists takes readers around the globe while exploring the deepest, most private recesses of the human mind, offering profound windows onto human experience.” We couldn’t agree more!
The Kirkus Prize honors the best of the year’s releases that have received a rare starred review from Kirkus before their publication and offers one of the highest rewards of US literary prizes. This year’s winners will be announced during a ceremony at the Tribeca Rooftop in New York on Oct. 7 that will also be livestreamed on Kirkus’ YouTube channel at 7:30 p.m. EDT.
See the full list of finalists here, and discover Defiance by Loubna Mrie (Viking 2026) and This Is Where the Serpent Lives (Knopf 2026), available wherever books are sold!
