🏆 THE 2027 INKIES
🏆 THE 2027 INKIES
The Spilled Ink and Coffee Show Story Awards
We read it. We felt it. We judged it. ☕📚
Welcome to The Inkies — our year-long celebration of the stories that made us laugh, cry, rage, gasp, learn, swoon, and occasionally wonder… WHO PUBLISHED THIS CRAP?! 😂
There are NO reading rules and NO limits on what counts.
Fiction? Nonfiction? Romance? Horror? Fantasy? Memoir? Weird little book you found at 2 a.m.?
BRING IT.
As we read throughout 2027, books and stories will earn their way into our running Inkie contenders list.
Track your book here at The StoryGraph
then
Copy/Paste the categories and join the fun with our community blog!!!
https://www.thespilledinkandcoffeeshow.com/the-quill-cup-1
And the categories?
👑 The Hall of Fame & Favorites
📚 Favorite Book of the Year: The undisputed champion. The ultimate masterpiece that captured our hearts, ruled our thoughts, and defined our entire reading year.
🌟 Favorite Series: The multi-book arc or ongoing world we simply couldn’t get enough of—the one that kept us coming back volume after volume, binge-reading into the night.
🎭 Favorite Character of the Year: The protagonist, villain, sidekick, or chaotic anti-hero who walked off the page and lived in our heads rent-free.
🎙️ Favorite Narrator: The voice actor who brought a story to life so masterfully with their tone, pacing, and character voices that we couldn't imagine listening to it any other way.
💖 Favorite Genre: The genre that brought the absolute most joy, comfort, or thrilling escapes throughout the entire year.
📣 Favorite Recommendation: The book recommended by a podcast guest, friend, or fellow reader that blew us away and made us say, "Thank you for forcing me to read this!"
🎧 Format Spotlight & Special Awards
🖼️ Book Cover of the Year: The visual masterpiece that made us stop dead in our tracks, stare in awe, and judge a book strictly by its stunning cover.
🔊 Best Audio Experience: For the audiobook, full-cast audio drama, or sound design that went way beyond a simple narration to create an immersive theater-of-the-mind experience.
🎨 Best Graphic / Visual Story: Celebrating the visual storytelling power of graphic novels, manga, or illustrated works where artwork and narrative unite seamlessly.
🚫 DNF of the Year: The book we just couldn't finish, set down, and couldn't bring ourselves to pick back up. Better luck next time!
🔥 Story & Emotion Awards
🤯 WTF?!
The book that made us stop, stare, and say, “WHAT did I just read?!” Wild plots, insane twists, unexpected choices, or stories that completely caught us off guard.
😂 LOL, I Spilled My Drink
The book that genuinely made us laugh out loud. Funny, ridiculous, clever, or just perfectly timed—if it made us laugh, it belongs here.
😭 Grab the Tissues
The book that broke our hearts, made us ugly cry, or had us reaching for the tissues. Emotional damage, in the best possible way.
🎨 Oozing Creativity
For the story that was bursting with imagination. Unique storytelling, unforgettable world-building, creative formats, or an idea we've never seen done quite like this.
🤦♀️ Who Published This Crap?!
The book that had us questioning EVERYTHING. Bad writing, terrible decisions, confusing plots, or just a complete “what were they thinking?” moment.
💎 A Hidden Gem
A book that deserves WAY more attention. Maybe it flew under the radar, wasn't getting enough hype, or we discovered it and immediately wanted everyone to know about it.
✨ #Inspiring
The story that motivated us, changed our perspective, made us want to do something, or simply left us feeling a little more hopeful.
🌬️ A Breath of Fresh Air
The book that felt different. A fresh voice, original perspective, unexpected approach, or something that broke away from the usual reading experience.
😡 Pissed Me Off
The book that made us angry. Characters, choices, situations, endings, injustice, or that one thing that had us yelling at the book like it could hear us.
🧠 Learned Something New
The book that taught us something we didn't know before. History, science, culture, people, places, skills, experiences, or just one fascinating fact we couldn't stop thinking about.
😱 Made Me Gasp!
The book that delivered the OMG moment. Shocking reveals, jaw-dropping twists, unexpected endings, or scenes that literally made us gasp.
🪄 Magical
The book that transported us somewhere else. Whether it's literal magic or simply a story that created a little bit of magic through its characters, writing, atmosphere, or storytelling.
🌈 All the Things
The ultimate “HOW DO WE EVEN PUT THIS BOOK INTO ONE CATEGORY?!” award. The story that somehow made us laugh, cry, gasp, think, rage, and fall completely in love with it. It does ALL the things.
A story can land in one category, five categories, or surprise us with a category we didn't even know we needed.
We'll keep reading, rating, arguing, laughing, crying, and adding contenders all year long.
Then, when 2027 comes to a close, we'll pull out the finalists and crown the official Inkies winners.
Because around here, the best stories aren't always the most popular ones.
They're the ones that make us FEEL something.
☕ Read it. Listen to it. Experience it. Spill the ink.
🏆 Welcome to The Inkies.
Where every story gets a chance to steal the spotlight.
