Announcing the Winners of the 2025 Stackies

Jan 16

You did it! You picked the best books of 2025. I already knew The Stacks community had the best taste in books, and this year’s nominees and winners cement that fact. Truly, I would put you all up against any book prize jury in literature.

If you want to be a part of nominating and voting for The Stackies in 2026, be sure you join as a paid subscriber on Substack or Patreon.

And now, I proudly present to you the 2025 winners of The Stackies.

Best Debut

Dominion by Addie C. Citchens
The Devil Three Times by Rickey Fayne
The Lilac People by Milo Todd
Homeseeking by Karissa Chen
Woodworking by Emily St. James

Best Fiction

Audition by Katie Kitamura
Dominion by Addie C. Citchens
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
These Heathens Mia McKenzie
The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy

Best Thriller/Mystery/Horror

The Bewitching by Silvia Morena Garcia
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
The Grand Paloma Resort by Cleyvis Natera
King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby
Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

Best Short Story Collection

A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe by Mahogany L. Browne
Exit Zero: Stories by Marie Helene-Bertino
Show Don’t Tell: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld
Stag Dance: A Novel & Stories by Torrey Peters
Where Are You Really From: Stories by Elaine Hsieh Chou

Best Essay Collection

Dead and Alive: Essays by Zadie Smith
Misbehaving at the Crossroads: Essays & Writings by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
The People’s Project: Poems, Essays, and Art for Looking Forward by Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith
Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service by Michael Lewis
You Didn’t Hear This from Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip by Kelsey McKinney

Best Young People's Lit

City Summer, Country Summer by Kiese Laymon
Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown by Candace Fleming
Oathbound by Tracy Deonn
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
This Thing of Ours by Frederick Joseph

Best Graphic Book

Defiant: The Story of Robert Smalls by Rob Edwards
Gaysians by Michael Curato
It Rhymes with Takei by George Takei, Steven Scott, and Justin Eisinger
Lu and Ren’s Guide to Geozoology: A Graphic Novel by Angela Hseih
Spent: A Comic Novel by Alison Bechdel

Best Poetry Collection

Doggerel: Poems by Reginald Dwayne Betts
Helen of Troy, 1993: Poems by Maria Zoccola
The Idea of an Entire Life: Poems by Billy-Ray Belcourt
The People’s Project: Poems, Essays, and Art for Looking Forward by Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith
Scorched Earth: Poems by Tiana Clark

Best Translated Lit

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa
Sad Tiger by Neige Sinno
Solitaria by Eliana Alves Cruz
The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica
We Do Not Part by Han Kang

Best Book Not on the Stacks

Audition by Katie Kitamura
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley
The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li

Best Cover

Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry
Hot Air by Marcy Dermansky
Moderation by Elaine Castillo
The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
Stag Dance: A Novel & Stories by Torrey Peters

Best Main Character

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
These Heathens by Mia McKenzie
Woodworking by Emily St. James

Funniest Book

Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success by Jeff Hiller
The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson
Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart
Woodworking by Emily St. James

Most Hated

Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Antidote by Karen Russell
The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

Book for the President

One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism by Eve L. Ewing
The People’s Project: Poems, Essays, and Art for Looking Forward by Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith
There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone
Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service by Michael Lewis

Best Pick for The Stacks Book Club

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Best Stacks Episode

Ep. 404 The Best Books of 2025 with Greta Johnsen & MJ Franklin

Favorite Bookstore

Christopher’s Books (San Francisco, CA)
Loyalty Bookstores (Washington DC)
Resist Booksellers (Petersburg, VA)
Shop at MATTER (Denver, CO)
Women & Children First (Chicago, IL)

Thank you all so much for being part of the third annual Stackies. I look forward to more books to gush over and to hate in 2026.

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