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 Cover of November 15, 2024 issue | |
| Editor | Virginia Kirkus (1933 – July 1962) |
|---|---|
| Categories | Book reviews |
| Frequency | Semi-monthly |
| First issue | January 1933; 92 years ago (1933-01) |
| Company | Virginia Kirkus Bookshop Service, Virginia Kirkus Service, Inc. (from 1962), and others Kirkus Media, LLC (from 2010) |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | New York City,New York, U.S. |
| Language | English |
| Website | kirkusreviews |
| ISSN | 1948-7428 |
Kirkus Reviews is an Americanbook review magazine founded in 1933 byVirginia Kirkus.[1] The magazine's publisher,Kirkus Media, is headquartered inNew York City.[2]Kirkus Reviews confers the annualKirkus Prize to authors offiction,nonfiction, andyoung readers' literature.
Kirkus Reviews, published on the first and 15th of each month, previews books before their publication.Kirkus reviews over 10,000 titles per year.[1][3]
Virginia Kirkus was hired byHarper & Brothers to establish achildren's book department in 1926. In 1932, the department was eliminated as an economic measure. However, within a year, Louise Raymond, the secretary Kirkus hired, had the department running again. Kirkus, however, had left and soon established her own book review service.[4] Initially, she arranged to getgalley proofs of "20 or so" books in advance of their publication; almost 80 years later, the service was receiving hundreds of books weekly and reviewing about 100.[3]
Initially titledBulletin by Kirkus' Bookshop Service from 1933 to 1954, the title was changed toBulletin from Virginia Kirkus' Service from January 1, 1955, issue onwards, and successively shortened toVirginia Kirkus' Service with the December 15, 1964, issue, andKirkus Service in 1967, before it attained its current title,Kirkus Reviews, with January 1, 1969, issue.[5]
In 1985, Anne Larsen was brought on as fiction editor, soon to become editor, remaining the editorial head of Kirkus until 2006 and modifying the review format and style for improved readability, concision, accuracy, and impact.
Kirkus Reviews was sold toThe New York Review of Books in 1970 and subsequently sold by theReview to Barbara Bader and Josh Rubins, who served also as the publication's editors. In 1985, magazine consultant James B. Kobak acquiredKirkus Reviews.[6] David LeBreton boughtKirkus from Kobak in 1993.[7]BPI Communications, owned by Dutch publisherVNU, boughtKirkus from LeBreton in 1999.[8] At the end of 2009, the company announced the end of operations forKirkus.[1]
The journal was purchased from VNU (by then renamedThe Nielsen Company, or Nielson N.V.) on February 10, 2010, by businessmanHerbert Simon. Terms were not disclosed. The company was thereafter renamed Kirkus Media, and book industry veteran Marc Winkelman was made publisher.[9]
Kirkus Reviews has a traditional program of reviewing that does not require payment for reviews.[10]Kirkus Reviews also offers an Indie program that allows book authors to purchase, but not modify or influence, reviews that the book author can choose whether or not to publish on theKirkus website,[11] and if published may also be published in the magazine or email newsletter based onKirkus editor discretion.[12]
In 2014,Kirkus Reviews started the Kirkus Prize, bestowing $50,000 prizes annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction, and young readers' literature.[13]
