Winners have been named for the ECPA's 2026 Christian Book Awards:
Christian Book of the Year: The Bible Recap for Kids: A 365-Day Guide through the Bible for Young Readers by Tara-Leigh Cobble (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group)
Audio: The Girl on the Bathroom Floor: Held Together When Everything Is Falling Apart by Amber Emily Smith, narrated by Amber Emily Smith and Granger Smith, produced by Sydney Mathieu (HarperAudio, book published by Thomas Nelson)
Bibles: NIV Application Bible (Zondervan)
Bible Reference Works: Our Daily Bread Bible Atlas by John A. Beck (Our Daily Bread Publishing)
Bible Study: God of the Ordinary: A Study in the Book of Ruth by Alistair Begg (Lifeway Christian Resources)
Biography & Memoir: Here Be Dragons: Navigating Mean Girls, Motherhood, and Other Mysteries of Life by Melanie Shankle (WaterBrook/Penguin Random House Christian Publishing Group)
Children: Hello! My Name Is Emmanuel by Emmanuel Jean Russell, illustrated by Martina Stuhlberger (Tyndale House Publishers)
Christian Living: You Have a Calling: Finding Your Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful by Karen Swallow Prior (Brazos Press/Baker Publishing Group)
Devotion & Gift: Spurgeon and the Gospels: The Gospels with Devotions from Charles Spurgeon by Charles Spurgeon (Thomas Nelson)
Faith & Culture: The Tech Exit: A Practical Guide to Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones by Clare Morell (Forum Books/Penguin Random House Christian Publishing Group)
Ministry Resources: Pastoral Confessions: The Healing Path to Faithful Ministry by Jamin Goggin (Baker Books/Baker Publishing Group)
New Author: He Always Hears: A Story of Loss and the Hope of Things Made New by Alyson Punzi, illustrated by Tyler Charlton (Crossway)
Young People's Literature: The Story of Corrie ten Boom: The Watchmaker Who Forgave Her Enemies by Jennifer T. Kelley (Crossway)
---
Commonwealth Foundation Creatives has announced finalists for the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. This year's shortlist of 25 writers, representing 14 Commonwealth countries, was chosen by the international judging panel from a pool of 7,806 submissions. A Maltese writer appears on the shortlist for the first time, and "the recognition of stories written in Bengali and Malay further reflects the prize's role in bringing contemporary voices from across the Commonwealth to the fore," the organizers noted. See the complete list of finalists here.
Regional winners will be revealed on May 13, with the overall £5,000 (about $6,735) winner named in late June. All shortlisted stories will be published and available to read in the foundation's online literary magazine, adda, with the five regional winners also published in Granta.
Chair of judges Louise Doughty said: "Ultimately, our choices for the shortlist came down to authors who were not only excellent writers but, we felt, also had a grasp on the unique pleasures of the short story form, how it is a miniature carved in words that holds all the potential of a full-length novel in a few dense brushstrokes. We believe the writers in this shortlist have achieved all that and more, and we are immensely proud of our selection."