Indie Book Awards Shortlist 2025 features Jacqueline Wilson, Elif Shafak and David Litchfield

This year’s Indie Book Awards Shortlist includes authors Jacqueline Wilson, Elif Shafak and David Litchfield, among others. The awards, run by the Booksellers Association, are judged by – and given on behalf of – independent bookshops and are the culmination of the year-round campaign activity of Books Are My Bag, which showcases and promotes to consumers the "economic, cultural and community value that bookshops bring on a local and national level".

The winners are announced during Books Are My Bag’s annual Independent Bookshop Week, which runs from 14th to 21st June 2025. 

The awards comprise of four categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Children’s Fiction and Picture Book. Shortlisted authors for 2025 include Jacqueline Wilson and her first adult-fiction title Think Again, author and winner of Hans Christian Andersen Award and the Carnegie Medal David Almond, creator and illustrator of The Bear and the Piano trilogy David Litchfield, The Women’s Prize For Fiction shortlistee Elif Shafak and co-founded of the legendary Silver Moon Bookshop Jane Cholmeley.

Emma Bradshaw, head of campaigns at the Booksellers Association, said: "At the Booksellers Association we are privileged to regularly witness the alchemy of authors and independent booksellers working in tandem to place the perfect books into the hands of exactly the right reader; it is a magical pairing of brilliant writers and expert curators. Therefore it is always a privilege to announce the shortlist for the Indie Book Awards, where we can bring the results of this partnership to as wide an audience as possible alongside spotlighting some of the best and brightest summer reads for 2025."

The Adult categories judging panel consists of Charlotte Vaughan (Kenilworth Books), Thomas Owen (Gay on Wye), Amber Harrison (FOLDE), Jacqui Delbaere (The Little Green Bookshop) and Tomás Kenny (Kennys Bookshop & Art Gallery).

The Children’s categories judging panel consists of Amy Moorhouse from The Thoughtful Spot Children’s Bookshop, Molly Murray from Seahorse Bookstore, Heather Slater from Forum Books, Trish Hennessy from Halfway Up the Stairs and Sarah Skelton from The Book Nook Stewarton. 

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