The National Book Awards were established in 1950 to celebrate the best writing in America. Since 1989, they have been overseen by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to celebrate the best literature in America, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in American culture. Although other categories have been recognized in the past, the Awards currently honors the best Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature published each year. (National Book Awards Website)
Fiction
- Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (Scribner)
- Matrix by Lauren Groff (Riverhead)
- Zorrie by Laird Hunt (Bloomsbury)
- The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr. (G. P. Putnam’s Sons)
- Hell of a Book by Jason Mott (Dutton)
Nonfiction
- A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib (Random House)
- Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains by Lucas Bessire (Princeton University Press)
- Tastes Like War: A Memoir by Grace M. Cho (Feminist Press)
- Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America by Nicole Eustace (Liveright)
- All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles, (Random House)
Poetry
- What Noise Against the Cane by Desiree C. Bailey (Yale University Press)
- Floaters by Martín Espada (W.W. Norton)
- Sho by Douglas Kearney (Wave Books)
- A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure by Hoa Nguyen (Wave Books)
- The Sunflower Cast A Spell To Save Us From The Void by Jackie Wang (Nightboat Books)
Translated Literature
- Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin and translated from the French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins (Open Letter)
- Peach Blossom Paradise by Ge Fei and translated from the Chinese by Canaan Morse (New York Review Books)
- The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernández and translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer (Graywolf Press)
- When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut and translated from the Spanish by Adrian Nathan West (New York Review Books)
- Planet of Clay by Samar Yazbek and translated from the Arabic by Leri Price (World Editions)
Young People’s Literature
- The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor (Kokila/PRH)
- Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo (Dutton Books for Young Readers/PRH)
- Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff (Dial Books for Young Readers/PRH)
- Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon (Candlewick Press)
- Me (Moth) by Amber McBride, (Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan)
