Award-Winning Memoirs You've Probably Never Heard Of

This content material comprises affiliate hyperlinks. When you purchase via these hyperlinks, we might earn an affiliate fee.

Laura Sackton is a lifelong reader, author, and lover of made up worlds. She lives in rural Massachusetts together with her candy pup, and collectively they’re decided to seek out each good swimming gap inside an hour’s drive. She runs a tiny cookie enterprise out of her residence kitchen, and spends the remainder of her time studying and writing about queer books. You can hear all about her favorites in her publication, Books & Bakes.

View All posts by Laura Sackton

I’m again with one other listing of award-winning books you’ve most likely by no means heard of! This time, we’re speaking memoirs. Since I began making these lists, I’ve change into fascinated by the entire tradition surrounding literary awards and particularly how we discuss these awards. There are some high-profile awards, just like the National Book Awards, the Booker Prize, and the Pulitzer, the place the winners and finalists of those mega prizes appear to get a number of consideration and recognition. But as quickly as you begin to dig a bit deeper (and you’ll dig very deep — there are such a lot of prizes!) it’s obvious that the overwhelming majority of award-winning books don’t really get that a lot recognition.

The books on this listing have from 20 to three,000 rankings on Goodreads, with most of them falling within the low tons of. Three thousand might sound like so much at first — however examine it to the variety of rankings this 12 months’s Pulitzer Prize winner, Demon Copperhead, has (132k) and abruptly it looks as if a tiny quantity. All of which is solely to say: the world of ebook awards is huge and there’s a lot to it past the massive awards that everybody’s heard of. There are so many nice books on the market which were acknowledged by literary organizations, panels of authors, and critics, however that a lot of readers have nonetheless by no means heard of.

So let’s repair it, one listing at a time. These memoirs will take you from Nigeria to China to the UK. They’re about science, gender, immigration, sickness, household legacies, and a lot extra.

Lives of Great Men by Chike Frankie Edozien (2017 Lambda Award for Gay Memoir/Biography)

This is my favourite form of queer memoir: it’s a group of tales, each private and community-oriented. Nigerian journalist Chike Frankie shares his personal experiences as a homosexual man residing in Lagos, however he travels all through Nigeria, Africa, and the world, talking with different queer Africans about their lives. He writes in regards to the challenges LGBTQ+ Nigerians face, the devastating impacts of Western homophobia throughout Africa, and the numerous ways in which queer Africans, each of their residence international locations and throughout the diaspora, are constructing vibrant, and joyful lives.

None of the Above by Travis Alabanza (2023 Jhalak Prize)

This is considered one of my favourite books of the 12 months to date and I’m not going to cease shouting about it till everybody has learn it! Alabanza is a trans author and performer based mostly within the UK. This memoir is structured round seven phrases — some deeply transphobic and painful, and a few affirming — which were spoken to them all through their life. They use these phrases as jumping-off factors to mirror on their life as a visibly femme and nonbinary particular person, the sophisticated intersections of gender and race, the facility of queer efficiency and group, and a lot extra.

Nine Continents: A Memoir In and Out of China by Xiaolu Guo (2017 National Book Critics Circle Award for Memoir and Autobiography)

In this private memoir, Chinese novelist Xiaolu Guo shares with readers the numerous journeys which have outlined her life. She recounts her childhood together with her grandparents in a small village on the coast, the years she spent in Beijing, and her eventual option to immigrate to Europe. She paints an advanced portrait of China within the Eighties and Nineties, and gives a robust reflection on her personal coming of age as an artist, author, and lady.

Shame on Me by Tessa McWatt (2020 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for Nonfiction)

Tessa McWatt, like so many mixed-raced folks, has been affected by intrusive questions on her id since she was a toddler. In this memoir, she rejects the simplistic and racist query “what are you?” and as an alternative turns to her physique and private historical past to ask (and typically reply) her personal questions on race, colour, geography, and id. She traces her household’s historical past via China, the Caribbean, India, Europe, and Canada, untangling the numerous sophisticated threads that make up her story.

The Grave on the Wall by Brandon Shimoda (2020 PEN Open Book Award)

I’m all the time eager to learn memoirs by poets, and this beautiful work by Brandon Shimoda illustrates why. It’s a poetic, multimedia ode to his Japanese grandfather, an exploration of twentieth Japanese American historical past, and a meditation on reminiscence. Shimoda’s grandfather, a Japanese immigrant who was interred throughout WWII, died when Shimoda was younger. In an try and be taught extra about him, Shimoda travels from the U.S. to Japan and again. This is a transferring household portrait and a strong indictment of U.S. imperialism.

The Kissing Bug by Daisy Hernández (2022 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award

In this sensible mix of memoir, science writing, and journalism, Daisy Hernández delves into the historical past and politics of Chagas, an infectious illness transmitted by bugs. Her aunt died of the sickness when she was a toddler, however her household by no means talked about it. As an grownup, Hernández is set to seek out out why — why is that this illness unknown to so many Americans, whereas different ailments get heaps of consideration and funding for analysis? In sharing her circle of relatives’s historical past with Chagas, she illuminates the systemic points — medical racism, poverty, poor public well being coverage — which have saved it hidden for thus lengthy.

Boy with the Bullhorn by Ron Goldberg (2023 Randy Shilts Award)

Several books about ACT UP have come out lately, from Sarah Schulman’s huge oral historical past Let the Record Show to Rasheed Newson’s historic novel My Government Means to Kill Me. As far as I’m involved, there’s no such factor as too many — the work ACT UP was doing within the Eighties and Nineties was radical and revolutionary and remains to be a robust mannequin for activists right this moment. In this memoir, Ron Goldberg, an energetic member of ACT UP within the late Eighties and Nineties, shares his tales of being a homosexual activist through the AIDS epidemic in New York, recounting the numerous protests, conferences, and different ACT UP occasions he led and attended.

Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty (2021 British Book Award for Narrative Nonfiction)

Through a collection of diary entries, 15-year-old Dara McAnulty chronicles the altering of the seasons over the course of a 12 months in his Northern Ireland residence. Interspersed with observations of the pure world, he shares his experiences as an autistic teenager and displays on his burgeoning environmental activism. This is a superbly transferring memoir about a young person’s deep reference to nature.

If you’re within the temper for extra award-winning however under-the-radar books, we’ve obtained you coated! Check out these award-winning nonfiction, fantasy, and queer books you’ve most likely by no means heard of!