BOROUGHWIDE — BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY’S 2026 Book Prize longlist was announced Tuesday.
The BPL’s Book Prize longlist spans genres and formats, with titles hand-picked by librarians and staff from 135 books. The BPL picks new books that resonate with Brooklyn audiences. The fiction category includes Zoe Dubno’s “Happiness and Love,” Kate Folk’s “Sky Daddy,” and Gish Jen’s “Bad Bad Girl.” The nonfiction category includes “Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City” by Bench Ansfield, “The Hollow Half: A Memoir of Bodies and Borders” by Sarah Aziza, and “Baldwin: A Love Story” by Nicholas Bogg.
“From our home in New York City to Appalachia, and from Shanghai to Paris, the books on the 2026 Brooklyn Book Prize longlist consider the strength of the human spirit, often up against impossible odds,” said Linda E. Johnson, president and CEO of the BPL. “The extraordinary talent represented here showcases the beauty and meaning we can discover when writers are free to express themselves.”
The Book Prize was first established in collaboration with the Brooklyn Eagles, a group of young and engaged Brooklynites who are passionate about the BPL, working to engage new patrons, promote the Library as a cultural center and build a vibrant community around the library’s resources.
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