The 25 finalists for this year’s National Book Award have been revealed, and it’s time to make room on your bookshelf for these superior reads.
Among the list are returning winners such as Terrance Hayes, who won the poetry award for Lighthead back in 2010. This year, his poetry collection American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin has advanced to the shortlist. Lauren Groff, who previously was a finalist for Fates and Furies in 2015, has earned a spot on the shortlist for her short story collection Florida. There are plenty of newcomers this year as well, including Jamel Brinkley, a fresh voice in fiction honored for his stories collection titled A Lucky Man. Tayari Jones, who was long listed for her Oprah-celebrated novel An American Marriage, regrettably did not make the cut.
This year is also the first time since 1983 that the National Book Awards have added a competitive category – a prize for Translated Literature.
On November 14th, the National Book Awards for 2018 will be announced. Check out the comprehensive list of finalists below.
FICTION
Jamel Brinkley, A Lucky Man
Graywolf Press
Lauren Groff, Florida
Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House
Brandon Hobson, Where the Dead Sit Talking
Soho Press
Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
Viking Books / Penguin Random House
Sigrid Nunez, The Friend
Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House
NONFICTION
Colin G. Calloway, The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation
Oxford University Press
Victoria Johnson, American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic
Liveright / W. W. Norton & Company
Sarah Smarsh, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth
Scribner / Simon & Schuster
Jeffrey C. Stewart, The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke
Oxford University Press
Adam Winkler, We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights
Liveright / W. W. Norton & Company
POETRY
Rae Armantrout, Wobble
Wesleyan University Press
Terrance Hayes, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin
Penguin Books / Penguin Random House
Diana Khoi Nguyen, Ghost Of
Omnidawn Publishing
Justin Phillip Reed, Indecency
Coffee House Press
Jenny Xie, Eye Level
Graywolf Press
TRANSLATED LITERATURE
Négar Djavadi, Disoriental
Translated by Tina Kover
Europa Editions
Hanne Ørstavik, Love
Translated by Martin Aitken
Archipelago Books
Domenico Starnone, Trick
Translated by Jhumpa Lahiri
Europa Editions
Yoko Tawada, The Emissary
Translated by Margaret Mitsutani
New Directions Publishing
Olga Tokarczuk, Flights
Translated by Jennifer Croft
Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House
YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE
Elizabeth Acevedo, The Poet X
HarperTeen / HarperCollins Publishers
M. T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin, The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge
Candlewick Press
Leslie Connor, The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle
Katherine Tegen Books / HarperCollins Publishers
Christopher Paul Curtis, The Journey of Little Charlie
Scholastic Press / Scholastic, Inc.
Jarrett J. Krosoczka, Hey, Kiddo
Graphix / Scholastic, Inc.