The 2015-16 season marks the 20th anniversary of the New York City Book Awards. The awards were founded in 1995-96 to honor books of literary quality or historical importance that evoke the spirit or enhance appreciation of New York City. Click here for more general information about the awards.

The Library is proud to announce the 2015-16 honorees.

Robin Jaffee Frank

Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861-2008

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art/Yale University Press

Shane White

Prince of Darkness: The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street’s First Black Millionaire

St. Martin’s Press

Gerard Koeppel

City on a Grid: How New York Became New York

Da Capo Press

Arthur Browne

One Righteous Man: Samuel Battle and the Shattering of the Color Line in New York

Beacon Press

The Hornblower Award for a First Book

Tom Glynn

Reading Publics: New York City’s Public Libraries, 1754-1911

Empire State Editions/Fordham University Press

Special Citation for Two Iconic New York City Writers

Vivian Gornick

author most recently of The Odd Woman and the City: A Memoir (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)

Roger Angell

author most recently of This Old Man: All in Pieces (Doubleday)

For information about the May 3 awards ceremony, please click here.

The 2015-2016 New York City Book Awards are generously underwritten by Ellen M. Iseman.