It’s hard to believe we’re already celebrating the 10^th annual Kirkus Prize. From Roz Chast in 2014 to Tanaïs in 2022, our winners (and finalists) have reflected the wondrous diversity of authors and subject matter that has always been an integral element of the reviewing process at Kirkus. This year is no different, as the six finalists include a stimulating mix of memoir, biography, history, cultural criticism, and reportage, all rendered in memorable prose. The winner will be announced at a ceremony in New York on Oct. 11; in the meantime here is an overview of the books in the running. (All quotes are from our starred reviews.)

In Red Memory: The Afterlives of China’s Cultural Revolution (Norton, May 9), Tania Branigan, a former China correspondent for the Guardian, presents a “heartbreaking, revelatory evocation” of one of the most tumultuous periods in Chinese history. The author’s diligent research and compassionate reporting puts a truly human face on the devastations wrought by the Cultural Revolution.

Though lighter in subject matter, Jennifer Homans’ Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20^th Century (Random House; Nov. 1, 2022) is just as riveting. In this “intricate, meticulously researched biography of the revered and controversial dance icon,” the author situates readers front and center for an entertaining, brilliantly written look at the mystery of an often misunderstood artist “whose greatest creation was quite possibly his own mystique, which still fascinates.”

Clancy Martin’s How Not To Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind (Pantheon, March 28) is a tour de force that continues to haunt me months after I first read it. This “disquieting, deeply felt, eye-opening, and revelatory” exploration of mental illness, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation is packed with insight on each page, making for a uniquely powerful reading experience.

How To Say Babylon: A Memoir (Simon & Schuster, Oct. 3) by award-winning poet Safiya Sinclair is a masterful achievement of memoir writing, as the author delves into her difficult relationship with her strict Rastafarian father and her coming into herself as a poet. In shimmering prose, Sinclair grips readers from the beginning and never lets them go: “More than catharsis; this is memoir as liberation.”

For decades, journalist and professor Héctor Tobar has been one of our most important writers on race and marginalized communities in America. His latest, Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino” (MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, May 9), is “a pensive examination of the many ways there are to be Latinx in America.” From memoir to reportage to pop culture criticism, Tobar illuminates issues of race and ethnicity as only he can.

“An engaging tale of one enslaved couple’s journey to freedom and a love that conquered all,” Ilyon Woo’s Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey From Slavery to Freedom (Simon & Schuster, Jan. 17) is one of the most riveting historical page-turners I’ve read in recent years. Not just a deft excavation of the historical record, this book is captivating in its account of Ellen and William Craft’s dangerous travels out of bondage in the antebellum South. Woo provides necessary context while keeping readers on the edge of their seats.

Eric Liebetrau is the nonfiction and managing editor.