The National Book Award

Discuss the National Book Award here, including its prizes for Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature.

The finalists announced on October 11th were:

Fiction
• Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski
• A Disorder Peculiar to the Country by Ken Kalfus
• The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
• Eat the Document by Dana Spiotta
• The Zero by Jess Walter

Nonfiction
• At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 by Taylor Branch
• Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
• The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan
• Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present by Peter Hessler
• The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright

Poetry
• Averno by Louise Gluck
• Chromatic by H.L. Hix
• Angle of Yaw by Ben Lerner
• Splay Anthem by Nathaniel Mackey
• Capacity by James McMichael

Young People's Literature
• The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson
• Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt
• Sold by Patricia McCormick
• The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin
• American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

comments?

I've got to say that I was excited to see both The Worst Hard Time and Oracle Bones on the short list for nonfiction, since they are both books I have recently acquired through BookMooch. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten around to reading them yet, but I will be back with updates when I have.

Does anyone else have trouble "getting" Mark Danielewski's Only Revolutions? I bought a copy but it is impenetrable to me. I've ordered copies of Ken Kalfus and Dana Spiotta's books as well, but haven't received them yet. I am a mystery fan and therefore predisposed to enjoy it, but I was blown away by Jess Walter's The Zero. It looks to be an instant classic and I will be amazed if any of the other contenders affect me as deeply.

I got Only Revolutions out of the library without realizing exactly how the book was set up. I took one look at it and decided I didn't have time to tackle it now. Perhaps after I read House of Leaves, which I do own, I'll have more of a desire to tackle a second Danielewski book.

I'm curious as to who has already read it and how well it was appreciated.

I couldn't be happer that Richard Powers has won the NBA for The Echo Maker, though as fine a novel as it is, it's still not his greatest book, which I think has to be The Time of Our Singing. Nevertheless, if you've never read any Powers, The Echo Maker is a terrific place to start and I highly recommend it.

And the winners, announced this morning, are:

YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE
M.T. Anderson
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: The Pox Party (Candlewick Press)

POETRY
Nathaniel Mackey
Splay Anthem (New Directions)

NONFICTION
Timothy Egan
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl (Houghton Mifflin)

FICTION
Richard Powers
The Echo Maker (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

LouisBranning --

I completely agree that the committee made the right choice in Powers, even if they didn't choose him in the right year. I couldn't be happier for him.

I love The Time of Our Singing but for me, his top three books are:

Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance
The Gold Bug Variations and
Plowing the Dark

I usually recommend Plowing the Dark as a place for Powers virgins to start. I think that the narrative is just conventional enough to satisfy people who aren't accustomed to his writing, and I find it to be an emotionally rich book.

Eat the Document, by Dana Spiotta

I found this one somewhat thin. I decided to read it, since it looked like it would go quickly, and yep, I was right. There's some interesting but not sustaining juxtaposition of the irony of the 90s being the idealism of the 70s, but it just doesn't make the book anything more than an attempt.

I had hoped that this one would not win, so I'm satisfied, lol.

I am really getting tired of the 70s Radical Goes Underground genre. In the last year, this is at least the third novel I've read.

Backwards Facing Man, I forget who wrote that one, but it was some guy who was in manufacturing forever and then quit and started to write, so that was kind of cool.

American Woman, by Susan Choi, which even though I'm vaguely interested in Patty Hearst just bored me to death.

There's always that Philip Roth one, I forget which, probably American Pastoral, but that wasn't written all *that* recently and it's Roth so you know I give it a pass.

I think Eat The Document was nominated because the committee had no other female writers nominated. There was that big fuss two years ago because it was ONLY female writers and the nominees were dominated by first novels. That seemed a little weird and the committee really came under fire.

A Disorder Peculiar to the Country, by Ken Kalfus

I picked this one up next because it was the shortest of the remaining books and I thought I could power through it and maybe have more context for the award.

It's a weird one. It uses September 11, 2001, as a metaphor for the acrimonious dissolution of a marriage, both as sign and symbol, so that, for example the husband worked in the South Tower of the WTC but was late for work and so was *in* the building but got out. The wife was supposed to be on the Newark/SFO flight but her meeting got cancelled while she was on the way to the airport. So like right up front you see these two people learning that their soon-to-be-divorced spouse *likely* died, and how happy that makes them. It's a weird spin on things.

Then the kids (2 and 4) play incessant games of World Trade Center where they hold hands and jump off things in a "suicide pack."

It's so close to being amusing, but it isn't, really. Everyone's at each other's throat, and I'm finding it kind of tedious. I think it was a good thought to take the universal and make it particular, but I still think that Jonathan Safran Foer was WAY more successful at this in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

And then, it completely fell apart at the end. To the extent his irony worked at all during the bulk of the book, it failed utterly in the closing pages. Not recommended.

The Zero, by Jess Walter

Imagine the film Memento taking place in and around Ground Zero and environs in the days and months following September 11, 2001.

I'm about a hundred pages into this one and I'm liking it a *lot.* Walter clearly has his narrative in control, even though the story is about a man and a world that are out of control.

DeLillo fans should like this one, too.

I wouldn't have been mad if this one won, but that doesn't stop me from just being so happy that Powers is finally getting the recognition he has long deserved.

It just goes to show how different people's tastes are ... I find Richard Powers just about unreadable.

On a tangent, is anyone else familiar with the musician Poe? She's Danielewski's sister ... her stuff is pretty good ... the best way to describe it is a mix of those '90 grrl bands like Belly, Throwing Muses, Breeders, etc., but a bit more electronic.

With all due respect, Janey, I must disagree about Dana Spiotta's Eat the Document, which I thought one of the best books I've read this year. It's much more nuanced than it first seems, and Spiotta's radicals are real, and much more subtly realized, in ways that the characters in both Russell Banks' The Darling and Christopher Sorrentino's Trance were not, though both were excellent novels as well. And if Powers hadn't won, I would have been almost as satisfied if Spiotta had taken home the prize, as I found it just a terrific novel, one I've recommended with no hesitation this past year.

That's funny, LB, because it seems like you and I have similar taste in books. It's weird that we would diverge so markedly on this one.

As you felt about Eat the Document, I felt about The Zero. Have you read that one?

Hi janey, and yes, I bought a signed copy of Walter's book from Powell's just a few weeks back, and am really looking forward to it. I'd especially liked Citizen Vince, and recommended it to nearly everyone when it came out, a most entertaining novel. (And I just today posted my favorite new books of 2006 on my Profile page, Janey, including Spiotta's book of course, so you might take a look and see if there's any others you've liked.)

I just finished The Zero this morning and am already hankering to read Citizen Vince. I'm currently reading What Is The What, and liking it very much -- I'm going to be seeing a talk on December 11, with Eggers and Deng, so I'm kind of trying to read the book slowly so that it's very fresh in my mind when the talk comes around, but I'm liking what I read so far. It's hard, I think, to accurately translate onto the page the thoughts and feelings of a person from an entirely different culture, and I think Eggers is doing a good job of it. I find myself wishing that he could be more inside Deng's head rather than reporting words and actions, if you know what I mean. At about page 120, I'm finding myself looking forward to the parts that take place in the U.S., because they seem to have more emotion to them. Whether this book ends up as one of my favorites of the year remains to be seen, but I'm glad I'm reading it.

Suite Francaise pretty much blew my mind. I started shoving it at people after I read it, but I find it's a hard one to get people to read.

I have the Pessl book sitting on my shelf awaiting me. I may finish Imperial Life in the Emerald City first, though, because I just had this huge influx of fiction in my misguided attempt to read all the NBA nominees before the announcement of the winner (I came close though, lol).

Yes, I think you and I share many of the same tastes. I'll keep checking your profile (since you're stingy with reviews) to see what you're reading that I don't know about!

janey47: I liked Suite Francaise very much, and the appendices were fascinating. If you liked that one, however, you might not be so keen on the Pessl book. Good luck though.

I really loved the Pessl book, and one of my older sons called yesterday to tell me he'd just finished it and how much he liked it. And though I found the whole thing devilishly fun to read, I'll also admit to a regional bias, as I have a first-hand acquaintance with most of the deep-south geography she describes in her book, and thought she did a wonderful job of it.

I read Special Topics in Calamity Physics over the weekend, despite thinking I wanted to call it quits on fiction for a while.

I liked it a lot. For about the first 2/3 or 3/4 of the book.

No spoilers, but I thought it just fell apart at the end. I was really sorry about it, too.

However, even though I bought Citizen Vince and started it, once I finished the Pessl novel, I couldn't rest until I had re-read The Secret History, so I'm about halfway through that now and I'll probably finish Citizen Vince next.

But Special Topics *never* stopped making me think of The Secret History, and for me, the latter is the better read.

janey47:ditto

amandameale -- What I'm hoping is that Pessl pulls a reverse Tartt. Tartt had one good novel in her and that was all. I'm hoping that Pessl is just getting warmed up. *crossing fingers*

Yes. Pessl is obviously very clever - I've never read so many similes and metaphors in one book. For me the problem was in the structure. I actually liked The Little Friend but it certainly wasn't what I was expecting of Donna Tartt.

I bought The Echo Maker by Richard Powers today. Without this group I might never have heard of it.

I love Richard Powers, have read all his books, and The Echo Maker is one of his best I think, along with The Time of Our Singing and The Gold Bug Variations.

Yeah, I re-read The Gold Bug Variations a couple of weeks ago, for I think the fourth time, and then Three Farmers On Their Way To A Dance, that one for the third time, I think, and I am really just still amazed at what Powers does to me.

Let's not forget Plowing the Dark, too. I think Powers writes better than almost any other living writer, and I think even his worst books are better than most writers' best books, but I think Plowing the Dark, Three Farmers, and The Gold Bug Variations are his best of the best.

But hey, I ain't gonna argue with anyone over that question, lol. I'm just happy to see people reading him!

I've started The Echo Maker, based on its winning the award and conversations on LT, but so far I'm not sure how much I'm going to like it. I'm keeping with it because it seems to be one of those books that develops slowly.

2007 WINNERS (From NBAs website)

FICTION

WINNER: Denis Johnson, Tree of Smoke

Mischa Berlinski, Fieldwork
Lydia Davis, Varieties of Disturbance
Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End
Denis Johnson, Tree of Smoke
Jim Shepard, Like You’d Understand, Anyway

NONFICTION

WINNER: Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA

Edwidge Danticat, Brother, I’m Dying
Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
Woody Holton, Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution
Arnold Rampersad, Ralph Ellison: A Biography

(sorry, some touchstones not working it seems)

Synopsis of the winning novel from the publisher:

Once upon a time there was a war . . . and a young American who thought of himself as the Quiet American and the Ugly American, and who wished to be neither, who wanted instead to be the Wise American, or the Good American, but who eventually came to witness himself as the Real American and finally as simply the Fucking American. That’s me.

This is the story of Skip Sands—spy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong—and the disasters that befall him thanks to his famous uncle, a war hero known in intelligence circles simply as the Colonel. This is also the story of the Houston brothers, Bill and James, young men who drift out of the Arizona desert into a war in which the line between disinformation and delusion has blurred away. In its vision of human folly, and its gritty, sympathetic portraits of men and women desperate for an end to their loneliness, whether in sex or death or by the grace of God, this is a story like nothing in our literature.

I just finished Tree of Smoke and gave it a five. It is a macho book that will appeal more to men than women, I think. Uh-oh, nothing like stereotyping. To me, it's a descendant of Hemingway, Mailer etc.

My husband has recently started it. He had me call the bookstore (prior to its winning the award) to set it aside for us after he heard science fiction author Lucius Shepard rave about it.

My comment on Tree of
Smoke: 4397 Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson (read 29 Dec 2007) (National Book Award fiction prize for 2007) This is the 48th such prize-winner I have read--and I admit I dislike them oftener than I like them. This one was a real chore to read. It tells of psychological operations people in Vietnam. All the characters spew out undeleted expletives and such are set out in tiresome unnecessary fullness. I could not admire anyone in the novel and since the book is 614 pages the end always seemed too far off. The book follows Skip Sands and his uncle, who are with the CIA, and the Houston brothers, who are from Phoenix , one in the Navy and the other in Vietnam. They are stupid-acting persons, though undoubtedly there are people like them in the Navy and the Army. But it is very wearisome to read about the dumb and criminal things they do. I had to laugh at the blurbs on the dust jacket on the book--"masterpiece"; "prose of amazing power and stylishness"; "pretty much impossible to stop reading"--as to each blurb the opposite is true. Only because I finish books I start--it did get a bit less pointless near the end, but not much--did I read this entire boring book.

This year's finalists have been announced. Any thoughts?

For fiction, the nominees are:

Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project (Riverhead)
Rachel Kushner, Telex from Cuba (Scribner)
Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country (Modern Library)
Marilynne Robinson, Home (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Salvatore Scibona, The End (Graywolf Press)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/books/16natweb.html

The Lazarus Project is metafiction blended with historical fiction and travelogue. The author also had a photographer collaborator with each chapter featuring a black and white photograph. I liked the book but I have my doubts that it has wide appeal.

Shadow Country is a reworking of a previously released trilogy into a single book. It is excellent.

I was curious to see if The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine would appear on this list. It did not.

I haven't read any of these (yet) (and never heard of the Scibona book), but I bought Shadow Country based on a review and am considering taking it with me on a trip (it's long).

My only thoughts are to add four books to my wishlist at BookMooch....Shadow Country was already on it.

2009 National Book Award finalists:

Fiction:
Bonnie Jo Campbell, American Salvage (Wayne State University Press)
Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin (Random House)
Daniyal Mueenuddin, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (W. W. Norton & Co.)
Jayne Anne Phillips, Lark and Termite (Alfred A. Knopf)
Marcel Theroux, Far North (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Nonfiction:
David M. Carroll, Following the Water: A Hydromancer's Notebook
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Sean B. Carroll, Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Greg Grandin, Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt)
Adrienne Mayor, The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy (Princeton University Press)
T. J. Stiles, The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
(Alfred A. Knopf)

Haven't yet read but have heard great things about Let the Great World Spin and Lark and Termite.

I have only Let the Great World Spin and In Other Rooms, Other Wonders; I'll check out some of the others over the next week or so. Thanks for posting this, theaelizabet.

The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor is the winner of the Best of the National Book Awards Fiction Award, chosen as the best of the winners of the annual award from 1950-2008.

The Young People's Literature Award goes to Phillip Hoose, for Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice.

The Poetry Award goes to Keith Waldrop, for Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy.

The Nonfiction Award goes to T. J. Stiles, for The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt.

O'Connor over Faulkner? I don't disagree, but I am surprised.

And, finally, the Fiction Award goes to Colum McCann, for Let the Great World Spin.

More information on all the books can be found here.

Thanks for all of the info kidzdoc.

You're welcome! I followed the award ceremony on Twitter.

I think I'll read Let the Great World Spin as soon as I finish my current novel, as rebeccanyc and others raved about it earlier this year. I have the Library of America edition of Flannery O'Connor: Collected Works, which I had already planned to read next year; this should include the titles in The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor.

I've read the O'Connor, but wouldn't at all mind rereading it. In fact, I pick out several of her stories to reread each year. She's one of my favorites. Have to get my hands on the McCann, though.

I reviewed and gave Let the great world spin a 5 star. I think it's a great book.

Both O'Connor and Faulkner were great writers but if I had to choose one it would be O'Connor but only by a hair.

I did love Let the Great World Spin, and it is certainly prize-worthy, but I haven't read any of the other finalists and so can't comment on them.

Have read In Other Rooms Other Wonders and have, thanks to cabegley, have a copy of the Colum McCann in the TBR pile (she knew I loved his Zoli). Have just finished American Salvage which was an excellent collection of short fiction set in rural Michigan - so very different that In Other Rooms which was set in Pakistan and were connected (not quite as connected as Olive Kitteridge was, but connected nonetheless).

Sometimes I wonder if it's fair to judge a collection of short fiction against a novel...

The finalists for this year's National Book Awards have just been announced:

Fiction:

Peter Carey, Parrot and Olivier in America
Jaimy Gordon, Lord of Misrule
Nicole Krauss, Great House
Lionel Shriver, So Much for That
Karen Tei Yamashita, I Hotel

Nonfiction:

Barbara Demick, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
John W. Dower, Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, Iraq
Patti Smith, Just Kids
Justin Spring, Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward
Megan K. Stack, Every Man in This Village Is a Liar: An Education in War

Poetry:

Kathleen Graber, The Eternal City
Terrance Hayes, Lighthead
James Richardson, By the Numbers
C.D. Wright, One with Others
Monica Youn, Ignatz

Young People's Literature:

Paolo Bacigalupi, Ship Breaker
Kathryn Erskine, Mockingbird
Laura McNeal, Dark Water
Walter Dean Myers, Lockdown
Rita Williams-Garcia, One Crazy Summer

More info: 2010 National Book Awards

Edited to correct touchstones.

Shocking to not see Franzen's book nominated. I've read Shriver's So Much for That and just loved it. She is by far my favorite new author.

I've heard of the Barbara Demick North Korea book and am glad to be reminded of it because I've been meaning to get it.

I am finding Jaimy Gordon intriguing. She has written for decades but is largely unknown. She's not popular on LT and has few Amazon reviews. She has a bit better showing on Goodreads. From what I've found on the net, she seems to have a 'literary weird' bent that I'm fond of from time to time. I had never heard of her before her NBA nomination. It's an interesting pick from the wilds of bookdom. I shall have to try one of her works. Here's an interview with her.

http://www.gargoylemagazine.com/gargoyle/Issues/scanned/issue22/gordon.htm

>52 GCPLreader: As I read somewhere, the judges were told to ignore outside chatter and just look at the books.

>54 VisibleGhost: yes, she intrigues me also as does Yamashita.

The 2010 National Book Award for Young People's Literature goes to Kathryn Erskine, for Mockingbird.

The award for Poetry goes to Terrance Hayes, for Lighthead.

The award for Nonfiction goes to Patti Smith, for Just Kids.

And, finally, the award for Fiction goes to Jaimy Gordon, for Lord of Misrule.

I just saw an ad for Lord of Misrule in the New York Times yesterday;; do you think the publishers knew it was going to win?

#60: Lord of Misrule was just released on Monday, so I think the ad had more to do with that, and its place on the NBA list.

The finalists for this year's National Book Award for Young People's Literature have been announced:

My Name Is Not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson
Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and its Legacy by Albert Marrin
Shine by Lauren Myracle
Okay For Now by Gary D. Schmidt
Chime by Franny Billingsley

These are the finalists for this year's National Book Award for Poetry:

Head Off & Split by Nikky Finney
The Chameleon Couch by Yusef Komunyakaa
Double Shadow by Carl Phillips
Tonight No Poetry Will Serve by Adrienne Rich
Devotions (Phoenix Poets) by Bruce Smith

The nonfiction finalists are:

The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism by Deborah Baker
Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution by Mary Gabriel
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss

Finally, the fiction finalists are:

The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak
The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

The four winners will be announced on November 16th.

Apparently there was a "miscommunication" about the finalists for the Young People's Literature award. As a result, after the finalists were announced on Oregon Public Broadcasting, a sixth book was added by the National Book Foundation, Chime by Franny Billingsley. Has this ever happened before?

Of the fiction finalists, the only one I've read is The Sojourn and I don't consider it National Book Award quality; I had mixed feelings about the book. Of the nonfiction, I have both Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention and Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout (and have heard Lauren Redniss speak), but haven't read either.

I have one book in each of the adult categories: The Chameleon Cough (poetry), Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention (nonfiction), and The Tiger's Wife (fiction). I haven't read any of them, but I'll probably read The Tiger's Wife next week.

I'm really pleased that Binocular Vision is a finalist. That's a fantastic collection of short stories, and a local success story here in Eastern NC.

I have not read any of the finalists for fiction and nonfiction, so whatever wins I will read, since I make it a point to read all the winners in those categories--though there are some past winners I have not read--but not too many...

I enjoyed When the Emperor was Divine. Both the Karl Marx book and the one about the Curies are the types of book I'd definitely read but I haven't seen them in the library yet.
Chime is an enjoyable book, very clever, very fantastic. I personally thought the style in which it is written somewhat irritating but many other people seem to like it.
I do find it interesting that it got tacked on at the end, apparently. It doesn't really fit in with the other books in terms of subject matter, tending more to the fantasy side.

Well, apparently the NBA made Lauren Myracle withdraw. It seems Shine and Chime sound a lot alike over the telephone and someone goofed.
Frankly, I think it stinks. Surely the NBA board could be classy enough to let the nomination stand if it was their mistake?
It reminds me of the year the Nobel committee sucker-punched William Golding.

#72 I understand she got them to make a contribution to the Mathew Shepard Foundation in her name. I would like to have heard that conversation. There might have been words in it unfittin' for a young adult audience!

>74 avaland: I have not read any of the finalists, but I have read Jesmyn Ward's first book, Where the Line Bleeds, which I thought was excellent for a debut novel. I did take a peek at the new one, Salvage the Bones, but it seems a lot like the first, so I bypassed it (so many books...).

I've now read three of the books that were selected as finalists for the Fiction award, which will be announced tonight. Here's how I would rank them:

The Tiger's Wife
Salvage the Bones
The Sojourn

The winners of the National Book Awards were announced last night:

Fiction: Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones
Nonfiction: Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
Poetry: Nikky Finney, Head Off & Split
Young People's Literature: Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

I haven't read any of the finalists or winners, but I was fortunate enough to watch the webcast of the awards ceremony and hear Nikky Finney's acceptance speech.

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/nikky-finney-speech-rocks-national-book-awa...

The finalists for this year's National Book Awards have been announced:

Fiction:
Junot Díaz, This Is How You Lose Her
Dave Eggers, A Hologram for the King
Louise Erdrich, The Round House
Ben Fountain, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
Kevin Powers, The Yellow Birds

Non-Fiction:
Anne Applebaum, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956
Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
Robert A. Caro, The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 4
Domingo Martinez, The Boy Kings of Texas
Anthony Shadid, House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East

Poetry:
David Ferry, Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations
Cynthia Huntington, Heavenly Bodies (Southern Illinois University Press)
Tim Seibles, Fast Animal
Alan Shapiro, Night of the Republic
Susan Wheeler, Meme

Young People's Literature:
William Alexander, Goblin Secrets
Carrie Arcos, Out of Reach
Patricia McCormick, Never Fall Down
Eliot Schrefer, Endangered
Steve Sheinkin, Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon

More info: http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2012.html#.UHae8JG9KSM

Thanks for posting these, Kidzdoc. The only one I have read is the Caro book on LBJ. If it won that is one less book I will need to read. I try to read every fiction and nonfction winner and have read 55 of the fiction winners and 28 of the nonfiction winners.

Thanks, Darryl. I haven't read any of the fiction titles, although I hope to read the Diaz, Erdrich, and The Yellow Birds. I was astounded to see a new Anne Applebaum title in the nonfiction list that I hadn't heard of, but then realized it hasn't been published yet. I'll certainly run out and read that, and would like to read the Caro, but feel I should start at the beginning; an excerpt from this volume in the New Yorker was stunning.

It's interesting that three out of the five Fiction finalists have to do with America's recent involvement in the Middle East.

I started The Yellow Birds today and it's very nicely written.

The winners of this year's National Book Awards were announced earlier this evening:

Young Peoples Literature: William Alexander, Goblin Secrets
Poetry: David Ferry, Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations
Nonfiction: Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
Fiction: Louise Erdrich, The Round House

Thanks, Kidzdoc, for posting them. Now I will have to see if the Library has the novel and the nonfiction winners. I have read a couple of Erdrich's books:

2240. Love Medicine A Novel by Louise Erdrich (read 22 Oct 1989) (National Book Critics Circle fiction award for 1984)
2241. Tracks A Novel by Louise Erdrich (read 23 Oct 1989)

Love it when a plan works out . . . Not! I happened to have just finished Behind the Beautiful Forevers and have The Round House waiting for pick-up at the library now!

I haven't seen Erdrich mentioned around here much lately. Interesting choice.

Per this New York Times article, "This year it (the National Book Foundation) issued new instructions to the judges, in red ink no less, apparently as a signal to the judges that it was O.K. to nominate writers whose books were widely read. Critics had complained that in recent years judges had preferred little-known authors, which diminished the award’s stature."

>87 rebeccanyc: Interesting article. I'm actually in agreement with the proposed changes to the structure of the National Book Awards, provided that little known authors and small presses are given equal recognition and representation as the more popular authors and heavyweight NYC presses would receive. Obviously I'm a fan of the Booker Prize, so I wouldn't be opposed to see the NBAs adopt a similar strategy, with a longlist and shortlist in order to highlight the best books of the year. The Pulitzer Prizes have become stale and largely irrelevant, IMO, so I'd like to see the NBAs become the most prominent literary awards in the US.

"Obviously I'm a fan of the Booker Prize, so I wouldn't be opposed to see the NBAs adopt a similar strategy, with a longlist and shortlist in order to highlight the best books of the year."

Awards do not highlight the best books of the year. They highlight the books that the jury liked.

>89 ajsomerset: Really? I had no idea! Thank you for enlightening me, sir.

The National Book Foundation made this announcement yesterday:

"Beginning in 2013, the Foundation will increase the number of honored books by selecting a "longlist" of ten titles in each of the four genres. Additionally, the four judging panels will no longer be limited to writers, but now may also include other experts in the field, such as literary critics, librarians, and booksellers."

This week marks the announcement of the longlists for the National Book Awards. As Steven mentioned in the previous message the National Book Foundation has adopted a Booker Prize like format for the first time this year, with longlists of 10 books to be released this week for each of the four awards, followed by a shortlist of five that will be released in mid October and the selection of the winning books in a prize ceremony in mid November. The longlist for the NBA for Young People's Literature was released yesterday:

   Kathi Appelt, The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp
   Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures
   Lisa Graff, A Tangle of Knots
   Alaya Dawn Johnson, The Summer Prince
   Cynthia Kadohata, The Thing About Luck
   David Levithan, Two Boys Kissing
   Tom McNeal, Far Far Away
   Meg Rosoff, Picture Me Gone
   Anne Ursu, The Real Boy
   Gene Luen Yang, Boxers & Saints

More info: 2013 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST FOR YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE

The longlist for the Poetry Award will be announced later today, followed by the Nonfiction longlist tomorrow and the Fiction longlist on Thursday.

The longlist for the NBA Award for Poetry was announced earlier this morning:

   Frank Bidart, Metaphysical Dog
   Roger Bonair-Agard, Bury My Clothes
   Lucie Brock-Broido, Stay, Illusion
   Andrei Codrescu, So Recently Rent a World: New and Selected Poems: 1968-2012
   Brenda Hillman, Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire
   Adrian Matejka, The Big Smoke
   Diane Raptosh, American Amnesiac
   Matt Rasmussen, Black Aperture
   Martha Ronk, Transfer of Qualities
   Mary Szybist, Incarnadine: Poems

More info: 2013 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST FOR POETRY

Here's the longlist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction, which was announced earlier today:

   T.D. Allman, Finding Florida: The True Story of the Sunshine State
   Gretel Ehrlich, Facing the Wave: A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami
   Scott C. Johnson, The Wolf and the Watchman: A Father, a Son, and the CIA
   Jill Lepore, Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin
   Wendy Lower, Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields
   James Oakes, Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865
   George Packer, The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America
   Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832
   Terry Teachout, Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington
   Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief

And, finally, here's the longlist for the National Book Award for Fiction:

Tom Drury, Pacific
Elizabeth Graver, The End of the Point
Rachel Kushner, The Flamethrowers
Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland
Anthony Marra, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
James McBride, The Good Lord Bird
Alice McDermott, Someone
Thomas Pynchon, Bleeding Edge
George Saunders, Tenth of December
Joan Silber, Fools

The shortlists for this year's National Book Awards were announced yesterday:

Fiction:
Rachel Kushner, The Flamethrowers
Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland
James McBride, The Good Lord Bird
Thomas Pynchon, Bleeding Edge
George Saunders, Tenth of December

Nonfiction:
Jill Lepore, Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin
Wendy Lower, Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields
George Packer, The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America
Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832
Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief

Poetry:
Frank Bidart, Metaphysical Dog
Lucie Brock-Broido, Stay, Illusion
Adrian Matejka, The Big Smoke
Matt Rasmussen, Black Aperture
Mary Szybist, Incarnadine: Poems

Young People's Literature:
Kathi Appelt, The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp
Cynthia Kadohata, The Thing About Luck
Tom McNeal, Far Far Away
Meg Rosoff, Picture Me Gone
Gene Luen Yang, Boxers & Saints

The winners in each category will be announced on November 20th. More info: http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2013.html#.Ul-15TK9KSM

I just bought an e-book version of The Flamethrowers (only $1.99 on Amazon right now) and put some of the others on my wishlist. Kidzdoc, you are an enabler, but I appreciate it.

I read A Constellation of Vital Phenomena from the long list two or three months ago, and really enjoyed it.

The winners of this year's National Book Awards were announced last night:

Fiction: James McBride, The Good Lord Bird
Nonfiction: George Packer, The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America
Poetry: Mary Szybist, Incarnadine: Poems
Young People's Literature: Cynthia Kadohata, The Thing About Luck

The longlists for this year's National Book Awards were announced earlier this week.

Fiction:
   Rabih Alameddine, An Unnecessary Woman
   Molly Antopol, The UnAmericans
   John Darnielle, Wolf in White Van
   Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See
   Phil Klay, Redeployment
   Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven
   Elizabeth McCracken, Thunderstruck & Other Stories
   Richard Powers, Orfeo
   Marilynne Robinson, Lila
   Jane Smiley, Some Luck

Nonfiction:
   Roz Chast, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
   John Demos, The Heathen School: A Story of Hope and Betrayal in the Age of the Early Republic
   Anand Gopal, No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes
   Nigel Hamilton, The Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941-1942
   Walter Isaacson, The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
   John Lahr, Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh
   Evan Osnos, Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
   Ronald C. Rosbottom, When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation, 1940-1944
   Matthew Stewart, Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic
Edward O. Wilson, The Meaning of Human Existence

Poetry:
   Linda Bierds, Roget's Illusion
   Brian Blanchfield, A Several World
   Louise Glück, Faithful and Virtuous Night
   Edward Hirsch, Gabriel: A Poem
   Fanny Howe, Second Childhood
   Maureen N. McLane, This Blue
   Fred Moten, The Feel Trio
   Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric
   Spencer Reece, The Road to Emmaus
   Mark Strand, Collected Poems

Young People's Literature:
   Laurie Halse Anderson, The Impossible Knife of Memory
   Gail Giles, Girls Like Us
   Carl Hiaasen, Skink—No Surrender
   Kate Milford, Greenglass House
   Eliot Schrefer, Threatened
   Steve Sheinkin, The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights
   Andrew Smith, 100 Sideways Miles
   John Corey Whaley, Noggin
   Deborah Wiles, Revolution: The Sixties Trilogy, Book Two
   Jacqueline Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming

The finalists will be announced in each category on October 15th, and the award ceremony will take place on November 19th. More info: http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2014.html#.VBv6O1czI84

I'll be pulling for Marilynne Robinson, since I loved the other two in that "set" so much. I can't wait to get my hands on Lila.

Hmm. Haven't heard of a lot of these, but I guess that's because I haven't been paying attention!

Yes, it's hard to bet against Marilynne Robinson in fiction. In non-fiction, Roz Chast's "Can't we talk about something more pleasant" would be a terrific and innovative choice.

The shortlists for this year's National Book Awards were announced earlier today.

Fiction:
Rabih Alameddine, An Unnecessary Woman
Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See
Phil Klay, Redeployment
Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven
Marilynne Robinson, Lila

Nonfiction:
Roz Chast, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
Anand Gopal, No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes
John Lahr, Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh
Evan Osnos, Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
Edward O. Wilson, The Meaning of Human Existence

Poetry:
Louise Glück, Faithful and Virtuous Night
Fanny Howe, Second Childhood
Maureen N. McLane, This Blue
Fred Moten, The Feel Trio
Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric

Young People's Literature:
Eliot Schrefer, Threatened
Steve Sheinkin, The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny and the Fight for Civil Rights
John Corey Whaley, Noggin
Deborah Wiles, Revolution
Jacqueline Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming

The winners will be recognized at a ceremony on Nov. 19, headlined by Daniel Handler, better known as Lemony Snicket.

The winners of this year's National Book Awards have been announced:

Fiction: Redeployment by Phil Klay
Non-Fiction: Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China by Evan Osnos
Poetry: Faithful and Virtuous Night by Louise Gluck
Young People's Literature: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

The shortlists for 2015 National Book Awards were announced on 14 October 2015.

Fiction:

A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara
Fates and Furies, by Lauren Groff
Fortune Smiles: Stories, by Adam Johnson
Refund: Stories, by Karen E. Bender
The Turner House, by Angela Flournoy

Nonfiction:

Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs, by Sally Mann
If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran, by Carla Power
Ordinary Light: A Memoir, by Tracy K. Smith
The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness, by Sy Montgomery

Poetry:

Bright Dead Things, by Ada Limón
Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, by Ross Gay
Elegy for a Broken Machine, by Patrick Phillips
How to Be Drawn, by Terrance Hayes
Voyage of the Sable Venus, by Robin Coste Lewis

Young People's Literature:

Bone Gap, by Laura Ruby
Challenger Deep, Neal Shusterman
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War, by Steve Sheinkin
Nimona, by Noelle Stevenson
The Thing about Jellyfish, by Ali Benjamin

The 2015 National Book Awards winners were:

FICTION
Adam Johnson, Fortune Smiles: Stories

NONFICTION
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE
Neal Shusterman, Challenger Deep

POETRY
Robin Coste Lewis, Voyage of the Sable Venus

The finalists for this year's National Book Awards have just been announced.

Fiction:
Chris Bachelder, The Throwback Special
Paulette Jiles, News of the World
Karan Mahajan, The Association of Small Bombs
Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad
Jacqueline Woodson, Another Brooklyn

Nonfiction:
Arlie Russell Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right
Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
Viet Thanh Nguyen, Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War
Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America
Heather Ann Thompson, Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy

Poetry:
Daniel Borzutzky, The Performance of Becoming Human
Rita Dove, Collected Poems 1974–2004
Peter Gizzi, Archeophonics
Jay Hopler, The Abridged History of Rainfall
Solmaz Sharif, Look

Young People's Literature:
Kate DiCamillo, Raymie Nightingale
John Lewis, Andrew Aydin & Nate Powell (Artist), March: Book Three
Grace Lin, When the Sea Turned to Silver
Jason Reynolds, Ghost
Nicola Yoon, The Sun Is Also a Star

The winners in the four categories will be announced on November 16th.

2017 National Book Award Longlist has just been announced for Young People's Literature:

What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold
Far From the Tree by Robin Benway
All the Wind in the World by Samantha Mabry
You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez
Orphan Island by Laurel Snyder
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Clayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Williams-Garcia
American Street by Ibi Zoboi

The shortlist will be announced on October 4, 2017.

The National Book Awards Longlist: Nonfiction September 14, 2017

Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge

Frances FitzGerald, The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America

James Forman, Jr., Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America

Masha Gessen, The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the F.B.I.

Naomi Klein, No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need

Nancy MacLean, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America

Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

Timothy B. Tyson, The Blood of Emmett Till

Kevin Young, Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News

National Book Awards finalists will be announced on October 4th, and winners will be announced at a ceremony in New York on November 15th.

The longlist for the 2017 National Book Award for fiction was announced on Friday,

The full longlist

Daniel Alarcón, The King is Always Above the People
Elliot Ackerman, Dark at the Crossing
Charmaine Craig, Miss Burma
Jennifer Egan, Manhattan Beach
Lisa Ko, The Leavers
Min Jin Lee, Pachink
Carmen Maria Machado, Her Body and Other Parties: Stories
Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, A Kind of Freedom
Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing
Carol Zoref, Barren Island

On Wednesday, the National Book Foundation revealed the finalists for the 2017 National Book Awards, Fiction

Fiction

Dark at the Crossing by Elliot Ackerman

The Leavers by Lisa Ko

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Nonfiction

Never Caught: The Washington's Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America by Frances FitzGerald

The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen

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

Poetry

Half-Light: Collected Poems 1965-2016 by Frank Bidart

The Book of Endings by Leslie Harrison

WHEREAS by Layli Long Soldier

In the Language of My Captor by Shane McCrae

Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith

Young People's Literature

What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold

Far from the Tree by Robin Benway

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez

Clayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Williams-Garcia

American Street by Ibi Zoboi

The winners of the 2017 National Book Awards are :

FICTION:
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

NON FICTION
The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen

Poetry

Half-Light: Collected Poems 1965-2016 by Frank Bidart

Young People's Literature

Far From The Tree By Robin Benway

Finalists for the National Book Awards (NBA) in the Translated Literature category have been announced.

The Translated Literature longlist includes:

Disoriental by Négar Djavadi, translated by Tina Kover

Comemadre by Roque Larraquy, translated by Heather Cleary

Wait, Blink: A Perfect Picture of Inner Life by Gunnhild Øyehaug, translated by Kari Dickson

The Emissary by Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani

Flights by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft

Aetherial Worlds by Tatyana Tolstaya, translated by Anya Migdal

Trick by Domenico Starnone, Translated by Jhumpa Lahiri

One Part Woman by Perumal Murugan, Translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan

The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq by Dunya Mikhail, Translated by Max Weiss and Dunya Mikhail

Love by Hanne Ørstavik, Translated by Martin Aitken

The 2018 National Book Awards Longlist: Poetry

The full list is below.

Rae Armantrout, “Wobble”

Jos Charles, “feeld”

Forrest Gander, “Be With”

Terrance Hayes, “American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin”

J. Michael Martinez, “Museum of the Americas”

Diana Khoi Nguyen, “Ghost Of”

Justin Phillip Reed, “Indecency”

Raquel Salas Rivera, “lo terciario / the tertiary”

Natasha Trethewey, “Monument: Poems New and Selected”

Jenny Xie, “Eye Level”

The National Book Foundation today announced the Longlist for the 2018 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Finalists will be revealed on October 10.

*Carol Anderson, One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy

•Colin G. Calloway, The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation

•Steve Coll, Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan

•Marwan Hisham and Molly Crabapple, Brothers of the Gun: A Memoir of the Syrian War

•Victoria Johnson, American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic

•David Quammen, The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life

•Sarah Smarsh, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth

•Rebecca Solnit, Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises (and Essays)

•Jeffrey C. Stewart, The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke

•Adam Winkler, We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights

The National Book Foundation has announced the long list of 10 books for the 2018 National Book Award for fiction.

Jamel Brinkley, “A Lucky Man”

Jennifer Clement, “Gun Love”

Lauren Groff, “Florida”

Daniel Gumbiner, “The Boatbuilder”

Brandon Hobson, “Where the Dead Sit Talking”

Tayari Jones, “An American Marriage”

Rebecca Makkai, “The Great Believers”

Sigrid Nunez, “The Friend”

Tommy Orange, “There There”

Nafissa Thompson-Spires, “Heads of the Colored People”

Sigrid Nunez has won the top prize at the prestigious National Book Awards in New York on Wednesday 14 November 2018 winning the fiction category for her seventh novel, The Friend.

Jeffrey C Stewart won the award for nonfiction for The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke.

The young people’s literature category winner was The Poet X by the poet and author Elizabeth Acevedo.

The award for poetry was won by the poet Justin Phillip Reed for his first full-length book of poetry, Indecency.

The award for translated literature was won by the Japanese author Yoko Tawada for The Emissary

The National Book Foundation has announced the long list of 10 books for the 2019 National Book Award for fiction.

◾Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Fleishman Is in Trouble
◾Susan Choi, Trust Exercise
◾Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Sabrina & Corina: Stories
◾Marlon James, Black Leopard, Red Wolf
◾Laila Lalami, The Other Americans
◾Kimberly King Parsons, Black Light: Stories
◾Helen Phillips, The Need
◾Julia Phillips, Disappearing Earth
◾Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
◾Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys

The National Book Foundation announced the Longlist for the 2019 National Book Award for Nonfiction

◾Hanif Abdurraqib, Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest
◾Sarah M. Broom, The Yellow House
◾Tressie McMillan Cottom, Thick: And Other Essays
◾Carolyn Forché, What You Have Heard is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance
◾Greg Grandin, The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America
◾Patrick Radden Keefe, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
◾Iliana Regan, Burn the Place: A Memoir
◾Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership
◾David Treuer, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present
◾Albert Woodfox with Leslie George, Solitary

The 2019 National Book Awards Longlist: Poetry

◾Dan Beachy-Quick, Variations on Dawn and Dusk
◾Jericho Brown, The Tradition
◾Toi Derricotte, "I": New and Selected Poems
◾Camonghne Felix, Build Yourself a Boat
◾Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic
◾Ariana Reines, A Sand Book
◾Mary Ruefle, Dunce
◾Carmen Giménez Smith, Be Recorder
◾Arthur Sze,Sight Lines
◾Brian Teare, Doomstead Days

The 2018 National Book Awards Longlist: Translated Literature

◾Naja Marie Aidt, When Death Takes Something from You Give It Back: Carl's Book
Translated by Denise Newman
◾Eliane Brum, The Collector of Leftover Souls: Field Notes on Brazil's Everyday Insurrections
Translated by Diane Grosklaus Whitty
◾Nona Fernández, Space Invaders
Translated by Natasha Wimmer
◾Vigdis Hjorth, Arv og miljø
Translated by Charlotte Barslund
◾Khaled Khalifa, Death is Hard Work
Translated by Leri Price
◾László Krasznahorkai, Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming
Translated by Ottilie Mulzet
◾Scholastique Mukasonga, The Barefoot Woman
Translated by Jordan Stump
◾Yoko Ogawa, The Memory Police
Translated by Stephen Snyder
◾Pajtim Statovci, Tiranan sydän
Translated by David Hackston
◾Olga Tokarczuk, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones

The winners of the 2019 National Book Awards have been announced!


Báró Wenckheim hazatér
by László Krasznahorkai for Translated Literature

1919 The Year That Changed America
by Martin W. Sandler for Young People's Literature

Sight Lines
by Arthur Sze for Poetry

The Yellow House
by Sarah M. Broom for Nonfiction

Trust Exercise
by Susan Choi for Fiction

Congratulations to the winners of this year's National Book Awards!

Fiction: Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
Nonfiction: The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne and Tamara Payne
Poetry: DMZ Colony by Don Mee Choi
Translated Fiction: Tokyo Ueno Station by Miri Yu
Young People's Literature: King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender

2021 Shortlist and Winners
Fiction
Hell of a Book, Jason Mott, Winner
Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr
Matrix, Lauren Groff
Zorrie, Laird Hunt
The Prophets, Robert Jones, Jr.

Nonfiction
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake, Tiya Miles, Winner
A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance, Hanif Abdurraqib
Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains, Lucas Bessire
Tastes Like War: A Memoir, Grace M. Cho
Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America, Nicole Eustace

Poetry
Floaters, Martín Espada, Winner
What Noise Against the Cane, Desiree C. Bailey
Sho, Douglas Kearney
A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure, Hoa Nguyen
The Sunflower Cast a Spell to Save Us from the Void, Jackie Wang

Translated Literature
Winter in Sokcho, Élisa Shua Dusapin, Winner
Peach Blossom Paradise, Ge Fei
The Twilight Zone, Nona Fernández
When We Cease to Understand the World, Benjamín Labatut
Planet of Clay, Samar Yazbek

Young People’s Literature
Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Malinda Lo, Winner
The Legend of Auntie Po, Shing Yin Khor
Too Bright to See, Kyle Lukoff
Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People, Kekla Magoon
Me (Moth), Amber McBride

2022 Finalist

Finalists for Fiction:

Tess Gunty, The Rabbit Hutch
Gayl Jones, The Birdcatcher
Jamil Jan Kochai, The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories
Sarah Thankam Mathews, All This Could Be Different
Alejandro Varela, The Town of Babylon

Finalists for Nonfiction:

Meghan O’Rourke, The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness
Imani Perry, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation
David Quammen, Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus
Ingrid Rojas Contreras, The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir
Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice

Finalists for Poetry:

Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Look at This Blue
John Keene, Punks: New & Selected Poems
Sharon Olds, Balladz
Roger Reeves, Best Barbarian
Jenny Xie, The Rupture Tense

Finalists for Translated Literature:

Jon Fosse, A New Name: Septology VI-VII
Scholastique Mukasonga, Kibogo
Mónica Ojeda, Jawbone
Samanta Schweblin, Seven Empty Houses
Yoko Tawada, Scattered All Over the Earth

Finalists for Young People’s Literature:

Kelly Barnhill, The Ogress and the Orphans
Sonora Reyes, The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School
Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes, and Dawud Anyabwile, Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice
Sabaa Tahir, All My Rage
Lisa Yee, Maizy Chen’s Last Chance

2022 Winners:

Fiction:
Tess Gunty, The Rabbit Hutch

Nonfiction:
Imani Perry, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

Poetry:
John Keene, Punks: New & Selected Poems

Translated Literature:
Samanta Schweblin, Seven Empty Houses

Young People’s Literature:
Sabaa Tahir, All My Rage