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National Book Award
"Established in 1950, the National Book Award is an American literary prize administered by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization. Each year, the Foundation selects a total of twenty Judges, including five in each of the four Award categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature." Click here to visit the official website.
National Book Awards
Fiction
The Friend by Call Number: FICTION NUNEZWhen a woman unexpectedly loses her lifelong best friend and mentor, she finds herself burdened with the unwanted dog he has left behind. Her own battle against grief is intensified by the mute suffering of the dog, a huge Great Dane traumatized by the inexplicable disappearance of its master, and by the threat of eviction: dogs are prohibited in her apartment building. While others worry that grief has made her a victim of magical thinking, the woman refuses to be separated from the dog except for brief periods of time. Isolated from the rest of the world, increasingly obsessed with the dog's care, determined to read its mind and fathom its heart, she comes dangerously close to unraveling. But while troubles abound, rich and surprising rewards lie in store for both of them.
Finalists
- A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley
- Florida by Lauren Groff
- Where the Dead Sit Talking by Brandon Hobson
- The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Longlist
- Gun Love by Jennifer Clement
- The Boatbuilder by Daniel Gumbiner
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
- There There by Tommy Orange
- Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
Nonfiction
The New Negro by A tiny, fastidiously dressed man emerged from Black Philadelphia around the turn of the century to mentor a generation of young artists including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jacob Lawrence and call them the New Negro -- the creative African Americans whose art, literature, music, and drama would inspire Black people to greatness. In The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke, Jeffrey C. Stewart offers the definitive biography of the father of the Harlem Renaissance, based on the extant primary sources of his life and on interviews with those who knew him personally.
Finalists
- The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation by Colin G. Calloway
- American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic by Victoria Johnson
- Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh
- We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights by Adam Winkler
Longlist
- One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy by Carol Anderson
- Directorate S: The CIA and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Steve Coll
- Brothers of the Gun: A Memoir of the Syrian War by Marwan Hisham Molly Crabapple
- The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life by David Quammen
- Call Them By Their True Names: American Crises (and Essays) by Rebecca Solnit
Poetry
Indecency by Indecency is boldly and carefully executed and perfectly ragged. In these poems, Justin Phillip Reed experiments with language to explore inequity and injustice and to critique and lament the culture of white supremacy and the dominant social order. Political and personal, tender, daring, and insightful―the author unpacks his intimacies, weaponizing poetry to take on masculinity, sexuality, exploitation, and the prison industrial complex and unmask all the failures of the structures into which society sorts us.
Finalists
- Wobble by Rae Armentrout
- American Sonnets For My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes
- Ghost Of by Diana Khoi Nguyen
- Eye Level by Jenny Xie
Longlist
- feeld by Jos Charles
- Be With by Forrest Gander
- Museum of the Americas by J. Michael Martinez
- lo terciario/The Tertiary by Raquel Salas Rivera
- Monument: Poems New and Selected by Natasha Trethewey
Translated Literature
The Emissary by Call Number: FICTION TAWADAIn Japan, which has cut itself off from the world after suffering a massive irreparable disaster, Yoshiro cares for his grandson, Mumei, a strangely wonderful boy and ancient soul whom he believes is a beacon of hope for the world in this time of darkness.
Finalists
- Disoriental by Négar Djavadi; translated by Tina Kover
- Trick by Domenico Starnone; translated by Jhumpa Lahiri
- Flights by Olga Tokarczuk; translated by Jennifer Croft
- Love by Hanne Ørstavik; translated by Martin Aitken
Longlist
- Comemadre by Roque Larraquy; translated by Heather Cleary
- The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq by Dunya Mikhail; translated by Max D. Weiss
- One Part Woman by Perumal Murugam; translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
- Aetherial Worlds by Tatyana Tolstaya; translated by Anya Migdal
- Wait, Blink: A Perfect Picture of Inner Life by Gunnhild Øyehaug; translated by Kari Dickson
Young People's Literature
The Poet X by Call Number: YA FICTION ACEVEDOWhen Xiomara Batista, who pours all her frustrations and passion into poetry, is invited to join the school slam poetry club, she struggles with her mother's expectations and her need to be heard.
Finalists
Fiction
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Call Number: FICTION WARDJojo and his toddler sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam and Pop, and the occasional presence of their drug-addicted mother, Leonie, on a farm on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Leonie is simultaneously tormented and comforted by visions of her dead brother, which only come to her when she's high; Mam is dying of cancer; and quiet, steady Pop tries to run the household and teach Jojo how to be a man. When the white father of Leonie's children is released from prison, she packs her kids and a friend into her car and sets out across the state for Parchman farm, the Mississippi State Penitentiary, on a journey rife with danger and promise.
Finalists
Longlist
- The King is Always Above the People by Daniel Alarcon
- Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig
- Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
- A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
- Barren Island by Carol Zoref
Nonfiction
The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Putin's bestselling biographer reveals how, in the space of a generation, Russia surrendered to a more virulent and invincible new strain of autocracy.
Finalists
- Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
- The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America by Frances Fitzgerald
- Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
- Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean
Longlist
- Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman Jr.
- No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need by Naomi Klein
- The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
- The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson
- Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News by Kevin Young
Poetry
Half-Light: Collected Poems 1965-2016 by Gathered together, the poems of Frank Bidart perform one of the most remarkable transmutations of the body into language in contemporary literature. His pages represent the human voice in all its extreme registers, whether it’s that of the child-murderer Herbert White, the obsessive anorexic Ellen West, the tormented genius Vaslav Nijinsky, or the poet’s own.
Finalists
Longlist
- When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen
- Magdalene: Poems by Marie Howe
- Where Now: New and Selected Poems by Laura Kasischke
- Square Inch Hours by Sherod Santos
- Afterland by Mai Der Vang
Young People's Literature
Far from the Tree by Call Number: YA FICTION BENWAYPerfect for fans of NBC's "This Is Us," Robin Benway's beautiful interweaving story of three very different teenagers connected by blood explores the meaning of family in all its forms--how to find it, how to keep it, and how to love it.
Finalists
- What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold
- I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez
- Clayton Bird Goes Underground by Rita Williams-Garcia
- American Street by Ibi Zoboi
Fiction
The Underground Railroad by Call Number: FICTION WHITEHEACora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood–where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned–Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.
Finalists
- The Throwback Special by Chris Bachelder
- News of the World by Paulette Jiles
- The Association of Small Bombs by Karen Mahajan
- Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
Longlist
Nonfiction
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Call Number: 305.8009 KENDI
Finalists
- Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild
- Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War by Viet Thanh Nguyen
- The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America by Andres Resendez
- Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy by Heather Ann Thompson
Longlist
- America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History by Andrew J. Bacevich
- The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice by Patricia Bell-Scott
- Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck by Adam Cohen
- Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O'Neil
- The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition by Manisha Sinha
Poetry
The Performance of Becoming Human by Call Number: 811.6 BORZUTZKDaniel Borzutzkys collection of poetry, The Performance of Becoming Human, draws hemispheric connections between the US and Latin America, specifically touching upon issues relating to border and immigration policies, economic disparity, political violence, and the disturbing rhetoric of capitalism and bureaucracies. To become human is to navigate these borders, including those of institutions, the realities of over- and under-development, and the economies of privatization, in which humans endure state-sanctioned and systemic abuses.
Finalists
Longlist
- The Selected Poems of Donald Hall by Donald Hall
- Bestiary by Donika Kelly
- World of Made and Unmade by Jane Mead
- Blackacre by Monica Youn
- Blue Laws by Kevin Young
Young People's Literature
March, Book 3 by Call Number: GRAPHIC NOVEL MARCHBy the fall of 1963, the Civil Rights Movement has penetrated deep into the American consciousness, and as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, John Lewis is guiding the tip of the spear. Through relentless direct action, SNCC continues to force the nation to confront its own blatant injustice, but for every step forward, the danger grows more intense. The only hope for lasting change is to give voice to the millions of Americans silenced by voter suppression:”One Man, One Vote.” With these new struggles come new allies, new opponents, and an unpredictable new president who might be both at once. But fractures within the movement are deepening … even as 25-year-old John Lewis prepares to risk everything in a historic showdown high above the Alabama river, in a town called Selma.
Finalists
Fiction
Fortune Smiles by Call Number: FICTION JOHNSONIn six masterly stories, Johnson delves deep into love and loss, natural disasters, the influence of technology, and how the political shapes the personal.
Finalists
Longlist
Nonfiction
Between the World and Me by Call Number: 305.8 COATESCoates writes to his 15-year-old son about the inborn hazards of being black in America and his own intellectual, political and emotional confrontation with the need to live fully, even in the face of racialist culture.
Finalists
Longlist
- Rain by Cynthia Barnett
- Mourning Lincoln by Martha Hodes
- Paradise of the Pacific by Susanna Moore
- Love and Other Ways of Dying by Michael Paterniti
- Travels in Vermeer by Michael White
Poetry
Voyage of the Sable Venus by Call Number: 811.6 LEWISA stunning poetry debut: this meditation on the black female figure throughout time introduces us to a brave and penetrating new voice.
Finalists
Longlist
- Scattered at Sea by Amy Gerstler
- A Stranger's Mirror by Marilyn Hacker
- The Beauty by Jane Hirshfield
- Heaven by Rowan Ricardo Phillips
- Mistaking Each Other For Ghosts by Lawrence Raab
Young People's Literature
Challenger Deep by Call Number: YA FICTION SHUSTERMCaden Bosch is on a ship that's headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench. Caden Bosch is a brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his odd behavior. Caden Bosch is designated the ship's artist in residence to document the journey with images. Caden Bosch pretends to join the school track team but spends his days walking for miles, absorbed by the thoughts in his head. Caden Bosch is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny. Caden Bosch is torn.
Finalists
Fiction
Redeployment by Call Number: FICTION KLAYPhil Klay's Redeployment takes readers to the frontlines of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, asking us to understand what happened there, and what happened to the soldiers who returned. Interwoven with themes of brutality and faith, guilt and fear, helplessness and survival, the characters in these stories struggle to make meaning out of chaos.
Finalists
Longlist
Nonfiction
Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China by Call Number: 951.06 OSNOSA vibrant, colorful, and revelatory inner history of China during a moment of profound transformation.
Finalists
Longlist
- The Heathen School: A Story of Hope and Betrayal in the Age of the Early Republic by John Demos
- The Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941 - 1942 by Nigel Hamilton
- The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson
- When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation, 1940-1944 by Ronald C. Rosbottom
- Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic by Matthew Stewart
Poetry
Faithful and Virtuous Night by Call Number: 811.54 GLUCKYou enter the world of this spellbinding book through one of its many dreamlike portals, and each time you enter it's the same place but it has been arranged differently. You were a woman. You were a man. This is a story of adventure, an encounter with the unknown, a knight's undaunted journey into the kingdom of death. Faithful and Virtuous Night tells a single story but the parts are mutable, the great sweep of its narrative mysterious and fateful, heartbreaking and charged with wonder.
Finalists
- Second Childhood by Fanny Howe
- This Blue by Maureen N. McLane
- The Feel Trio by Fred Moten
- Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
Longlist
- Roget's Illusion by Linda Bierds
- A Several World by Brian Blanchfield
- Gabriel: A Poem by Edward Hirsch
- The Road to Emmaus by Spencer Reese
- Collected Poems by Mark Strand
Young People's Literature
Brown Girl Dreaming by Call Number: J 811.54 WOODSONThe author shares her childhood memories and reveals the first sparks that ignited her writing career in free-verse poems about growing up in the North and South.
Finalists
- Threatened by Eliot Schrefer
- The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin
- Noggin by John Corey Whaley
- Revolution: The Sixties Trilogy, Book Two by Deborah Wiles
Fiction
The Good Lord Bird by Call Number: FICTION MCBRIDEHenry Shackleford is a young slave living in the Kansas Territory in 1857, the region a battlefield between anti and pro slavery forces. When John Brown, the legendary abolitionist, arrives in the area, an arguement between Brown and Henry’s master quickly turns violent. Henry is forced to leave town with Brown, who believes Henry is a girl. Over the next months, Henry conceals his true identity as he struggles to stay alive. He finds himeself with Brown at the historic raid on Harper’s Ferry, one of the catalysts for the civil war.
Finalists
Longlist
- Pacific by Tom Drury
- The End of the Point by Elizabeth Graver
- A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
- Someone by Alice McDermott
- Fools by Joan Silber
Nonfiction
The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by Call Number: 973.924 PACKERThrough an examination of the lives of several Americans and leading public figures over the past three decades, Packer portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation.
Finalists
Longlist
- Finding Florida: The True Story of the Sunshine State by T.D. Allman
- Facing the Wave: A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami by Gretel Ehrlich
- The Wolf and the Watchman: A Father, a Son, and the CIA by Scott C. Johnson
- Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865 by James Oakes
- Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington by Terry Teachout
Poetry
Incarnadine by Call Number: 811.6 SZYBISTMary Szybist restlessly seeks out places where meaning might take on new color. One poem is presented as a diagrammed sentence. Another is an abecedarium made of lines of dialogue spoken by girls overheard while assembling a puzzle. Several poems arrive as a series of Annunciations, while others purport to give an update on Mary, who must finish the dishes before she will open herself to God. Szybist's formal innovations are matched by her musical lines, by her poetry's insistence on singing as a lure toward the unknowable. Inside these poems is a deep yearning -- for love, motherhood, the will to see things as they are and to speak.
Finalists
- Metaphysical Dog by Frank Bidart
- Stay, Illusion by Lucie Brock-Broido
- The Big Smoke by Adrian Matejka
- Black Aperture by Matt Rasmussen
Longlist
- Bury My Clothes by Roger Bonair-Agard
- So Recently Rent a World, New and Selected Poems: 1968-2012 by Andrei Codrescu
- Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire by Brenda Hillman
- American Amnesiac by Diane Raptosh
- Transfer of Qualities by Martha Ronk
Young People's Literature
The Thing about Luck by Call Number: J KADOHATAJust when twelve-year-old Summer thinks nothing else can possibly go wrong in a year of bad luck, an emergency takes her parents to Japan, leaving Summer to care for her little brother while helping her grandmother cook and do laundry for harvest workers.
Finalists
- The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp by Kathi Appelt
- Far Far Away by Tom McNeal
- Picture Me Gone by Meg Rosoff
- Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang