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2020 National Book Awards Finalists Announced

The National Book Award Finalists are here! The winners will be announced November 18, 2020, in a virtual ceremony.

Pierce Alquist Oct 6, 2020

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Pierce Alquist

Senior Contributor

Pierce Alquist is a transplanted New Yorker living and working in the publishing scene in Boston. Don’t worry if she fooled you, the red hair is misleading. She’s a literature in translation devotee and reviewer and lover of small, independent presses. A voracious traveler and foodie, you can find her in her kitchen making borscht or covered in red pepper paste as she perfects her kimchi recipe.

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The National Book Foundation has announced the 2020 National Book Awards finalists! The list of finalists is already being described as fresh and timely, with “books about race and the struggle for equality feature[d] prominently” and two novels “with eerie echoes of world catastrophes.” Notably, none of the authors has been a finalist for a National Book Award before and almost a third are debuts.

The winners in each of the five categories—Young People’s Literature, Translated Literature, Poetry, Nonfiction, and Fiction—will be announced November 18, 2020, in a virtual ceremony. Acclaimed novelist Walter Mosley will receive the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Carolyn Reidy, the late Simon & Schuster CEO, will be honored with the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.