The winners of the Diverse Book Awards 2025, highlighting diverse voices across children's, YA and adult books, were celebrated at an event at Waterstones Piccadilly, hosted by poet Anneliese Amoah.

The Diverse Book Awards were set up to highlight the best of the diverse voices published in the UK & Ireland, both traditionally and self-published. Its creators author Abiola Bello and publicist Helen Lewis said, "We believe there's a need to showcase the talent of marginalised voices, so we came up with The Diverse Book Awards to open a space where the spotlight is on them."

More than 200 books were submitted for this year's Diverse Book Awards, and these are the winners:

The Diverse Book Awards 2025 Winners ​​

Best Picture Book
Until You Find the Sun by Maryam Hassan, illustrated by Anna Wilson (Hodder Children's Book) ​

2nd place: The Boy Who Loves to Lick the Wind by Fiona Carswell, illustrated by Yu Rong (Otter-Barry Books) ​

3rd place: Olu’s Teacher: A Story About Starting Nursery by Jamel C. Campbell, illustrated by Lydia Mba (Walker Books)

Best Children's Book

Birdie by J.P. Rose (Andersen Press) ​​

2nd place: The Boy Who Fell from the Sky by Benjamin Dean (Simon & Schuster Children's Books) ​

3rd place: The Wrong Shoes by Tom Percival (Simon & Schuster Children's Books)

Best Young Adult Book
Wild East by Ashley Hickson-Lovence (Penguin Random House Children's)

Best Adult Book

Allow Me to Introduce Myself by Onyi Nwabineli (Magpie)

2nd place: The House of Broken Bricks by Fiona Williams (Faber)

3rd place: The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye by Briony Cameron (Piatkus)

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