Indie Book Awards reveal shortlisted titles for 2026

Nation.Cymru Team

The Booksellers Association has unveiled the shortlisted titles for this year’s Indie Book Awards.

It is the only awards for authors and illustrators judged by – and given on behalf of – independent bookshops, the Indie Book Awards is a standout moment in the year-round campaign activity of Books Are My Bag, which showcases and promotes to consumers the vital and unique economic, cultural and community value that bookshops bring on a local and national level.

Championing the most compelling paperback reads for the summer are split into four categories (Fiction, Non-Fiction, Children’s Fiction and Picture Book).

The Indie Book Awards 2026 shortlisted authors include: internationally bestselling author and Hugo Award-winner R.F. Kuang (Katabasis), Philip Leverhulme Prize winner and nature writer Robert Macfarlane (Is a River Alive?), comedian and bestselling author Robin Ince (Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal), journalist and commentator Ash Sarkar (Minority Rule: Adventures in the Culture War), Booker Prize-shortlisted author Arundhati Roy (Mother Mary Comes to Me), twice Wales Book of the Year winning author C.M. Lewis (Quill and the Last Generation), illustrated by Marina Vidal, and acclaimed creator Chris Naylor-Ballesteros (Frank and Bert: The One Where Bert is Scared of Frogs), alongside leading voices and new talents in contemporary fiction, non-fiction and children’s writing from across the UK, Ireland and beyond.

With a judging panel of independent booksellers deciding the four category winners, to be announced on Thursday 18 June during Independent Bookshop Week, the Indie Book Awards celebrates and exemplifies 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.

The 2026 awards also sit within the wider National Year of Reading, a UK-wide campaign designed to help more people rediscover the joy of reading. It aims to tackle the decline in reading for pleasure by reconnecting reading with everyday culture and showing that reading can sit alongside people’s existing interests and passions.

Last year’s Indie Book Awards winners benefited from significant post-award visibility in independent bookshops across the UK, with James by Percival Everett, Ingrained by Callum Robinson, Ghostlines by Katya Balen and The Golden Hare by Paddy Donnelly all seeing increased discovery, recommendation and continued strong sales through independent bookshops following the awards.

The publisher for James reported that the title continued to sell strongly throughout the spring and summer following paperback publication, with the Indie Book Awards win helping to sustain sales momentum for a further eight weeks.

The publisher for The Golden Hare, meanwhile, reported a noticeable increase in sales and visibility in the UK and Ireland in the months following the award win, particularly among independent bookshops, schools and libraries.

Inspired

Emma Bradshaw, Head of Campaigns at the Booksellers Association, said: “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.”