From the National Book Award site: “The mission of the National Book Foundation is to celebrate the best literature published in the United States, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in our culture.” A panel of judges selects a Longlist of ten titles per category for The National Book Awards, which is then narrowed to five Finalists. Each Finalist receives a prize of $1,000, a medal, and a Judge’s citation. Winners receive $10,000 and a bronze sculpture.” Click on the highlighted titles for more information about the books. The National Book Foundation announced the winners (indicated in red) of the National Book Awards at a ceremony in New York on Wednesday, November 15.
Fiction
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars (Pantheon Books)
Aaliyah Bilal, Temple Folk (Simon & Schuster)
Paul Harding, This Other Eden (Norton)
Hanna Pylväinen, The End of Drum-Time (Holt)
Justin Torres, Blackouts (FSG)
Nonfiction
Ned Blackhawk, The Rediscovery of America (Yale University Press)
Cristina Rivera Garza, Liliana’s Invincible Summer (Hogarth)
Christina Sharpe, Ordinary Notes (FSG)
Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I (Other Press)
John Vaillant, Fire Weather (Knopf)
Translated Literature
Bora Chung, Cursed Bunny, Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur (Algonquin Books)
David Diop, Beyond the Door of No Return, Translated from the French by Sam Taylor (FSG)
Stênio Gardel, The Words That Remain, Translated from the Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato (New Vessel Press)
Pilar Quintana, Abyss, Translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman (World Editions)
Astrid Roemer, On a Woman’s Madness, Translated from the Dutch by Lucy Scott (Two Lines Press)