Here are the 25 finalists up for the National Book Awards in of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature:
Finalists for Fiction:
Susan Choi, Trust Exercise
Henry Holt and Company / Macmillan Publishers
Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Sabrina & Corina: Stories
One World / Penguin Random House
Marlon James, Black Leopard, Red Wolf
Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House
Laila Lalami, The Other Americans
Pantheon Books / Penguin Random House
Julia Phillips, Disappearing Earth
Alfred A. Knopf / Penguin Random House
Finalists for Nonfiction:
Sarah M. Broom, The Yellow House
Grove Press / Grove Atlantic
Tressie McMillan Cottom, Thick: And Other Essays
The New Press
Carolyn Forché, What You Have Heard is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance
Penguin Press / Penguin Random House
David Treuer, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present
Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House
Albert Woodfox with Leslie George, Solitary
Grove Press / Grove Atlantic
Finalists for Poetry:
Jericho Brown, The Tradition
Copper Canyon Press
Toi Derricotte, “I”: New and Selected Poems
University of Pittsburgh Press
Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic
Graywolf Press
Carmen Giménez Smith, Be Recorder
Graywolf Press
Arthur Sze, Sight Lines
Copper Canyon Press
Finalists for Translated Literature:
Khaled Khalifa, Death Is Hard Work
Translated from the Arabic by Leri Price
Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers
László Krasznahorkai, Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming
Translated from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet
New Directions
Scholastique Mukasonga, The Barefoot Woman
Translated from the French by Jordan Stump
Archipelago Books
Yoko Ogawa, The Memory Police
Translated from the Japanese by Stephen Snyder
Pantheon Books / Penguin Random House
Pajtim Statovci, Crossing
Translated from the Finnish by David Hackston
Pantheon Books / Penguin Random House
Finalists for Young People’s Literature:
Akwaeke Emezi, Pet
Make Me a World / Penguin Random House
Jason Reynolds, Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks
Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books / Simon & Schuster
Randy Ribay, Patron Saints of Nothing
Kokila / Penguin Random House
Laura Ruby, Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All
Balzer + Bray / HarperCollins Publishers
Martin W. Sandler, 1919 The Year That Changed America
Bloomsbury Children’s Books / Bloomsbury Publishing
The Winners will be announced on Wednesday, November 20 at the 70th National Book Awards Ceremony which is hosted by LeVar Burton. Two lifetime achievement awards will also be presented at the Awards dinner: Edmund White will be recognized with the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, presented by John Waters, and Oren J. Teicher will receive the Foundation’s Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community, presented by Ann Patchett. Congrats to the finalists!