2024 INDIES Winners Announcement
Foreword Reviews Announces Winners of the 2024 INDIES Book of the Year Awards
TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan: June 05, 2025—Foreword Reviews announces the winners of its INDIES Book of the Year Awards today. These awards celebrate the outstanding books published in 2024 by small, independent, and university presses.
A comprehensive list of the winners can be found here: https://www.forewordreviews.com/awards/winners/2024/
“After Foreword‘s editorial team completes the gargantuan task of narrowing down entrants to the top ten-plus titles in each category, we pass our finalist selections on to those whose opinions mean so much to us and to readers—librarians and booksellers,” says Editor-in-Chief Michelle Schingler. “These industry frontliners then do the careful work of telling us which three titles stand out the most. We’re always delighted to learn their final choices and to celebrate the ultimate winners alongside their authors and publishers.”
With over 2,400 entries submitted across 55 categories, this year’s competition showcased the remarkable talent and diversity of the independent publishing industry.
In addition to the category winners, Foreword editors handpicked Editor’s Choice Prize winners in both fiction and nonfiction. The nonfiction choice, from Westminster John Knox Press, is Worth Fighting For, by John Pavlovitz. For fiction, from Grove Press, is I Cheerfully Refuse, by Leif Enger. Both receive a $1,500 honorarium.
Finally, Foreword annually names an INDIE Publisher of the Year for the presses that exemplify the spirit of indie publishing. The 2024 award goes to Bywater Books for its twenty years of ushering in the “coming of age of queer literature.” In a year when LGBTQ+ communities faced renewed attacks and the names of DEI efforts were sullied by those in power, Bywater remained firm in its commitment to publishing titles that celebrate queer existence and that embrace diversity. Their world-widening books make us laugh, make us cry, and stand as enduring testaments to the breadth of love and the human experience.
About Foreword Magazine:
Since 1998, Foreword Reviews has provided trade book reviews of the best titles from independent presses. In print, and online, its FOLIO: award-winning design and editorial content makes the magazine a favorite among librarians, booksellers, and readers—an excellent resource when it comes to purchasing books. Foreword INDIES and the fee-for-review Clarion service complement our online content and print magazine, helping to showcase diverse independent presses and their authors for over 27 years.
Matt Sutherland
