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The 2017 National Book Award Longlist for Fiction

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Tracy Shapley Towley

Staff Writer

Tracy is a freelance copywriter, all-around ne’er do well, very-adult graduate of the University of Iowa, and occasional waterer of plants. Her hobbies include writing fiction, reading fiction, mixing together various flavors of soup, and typing letters to her friends on an old red typewriter that doesn't have a working period so all sentences must end in questions marks or exclamation points? She has read every Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and has a lot of thoughts on them. Her old Iowa farmhouse is shared by her husband Sean, a pair of cats, a pair of dogs, and the ghost of Kurt Vonnegut.

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It’s here: The longlist for the National Book Award!

Of note:

  • For the second time in their careers, Jennifer Egan and Jesmyn Ward are longlisted against each other. The last time this happened Ward won for Salvage the Bones.
  • Four of the ten authors are nominated for debut work.
  • Eight of the ten longlisted authors are women.
  • Six of the ten longlisted authors are people of color.

Without further ado, here you go:

Dark at the Crossing by Elliot Ackerman

The King is Always Above the People: Stories by Danial Alarcón

Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

The Leavers by Lisa Ko

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado

A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Barren Island by Carol Zoref

The judges this year are:

  • Alexander Chee
  • Dave Eggers
  • Annie Philbrick
  • Karolina Waclawiak
  • Jacqueline Woodson

    The shortlist will be announced on October 4th and winners announced on November 15th.