Presenting the 2026 Shields Prize Jury

Press Release

February 3, 2026

Carmen Maria Machado, Jury Chair (In the Dream House, Her Body and Other Parties)

Ivan Coyote (Tomboy Survival Guide, Gender Failure)
Cherie Dimaline (The Marrow Thieves, Funeral Songs for Dying Girls)
Chitra Divakaruni (The Last Queen, Oleander Girl)
Deesha Philyaw (The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman)

On behalf of the Jury, Chair Carmen Maria Machado shared: “It’s been such an honor and a privilege to encounter this body of work by women and non-binary authors, who are writing some of the most exciting literature I’ve seen in an age.”