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2024 National Book Awards Shortlist Announced

We now have the shortlist for the 2024 National Book Awards in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, young adult literature, and translated literature.

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In September, the 2024 National Book Awards longlist was released. Today the shortlist for the award was announced in a post at The New York Times, naming the 25 finalists who will content in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Young People’s Literature, and Translated Literature.

The finalists in each category were selected by a distinguished panel of judges that includes Brenda J. Child, Tressie McMillan Cottom, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Lauren Groff, Rena Priest, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Leah Johnson.

The winners will be announced live at the 75th National Book Awards Ceremony ceremony on Wednesday, November 20, 2024.

Here are the 25 finalists.

Fiction

Ghostroots by ’Pemi Aguda

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

James by Percival Everett

All Fours by Miranda July

My Friends by Hisham Matar

Nonfiction

Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling by Jason De León

Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church by Eliza Griswold

Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia by Kate Manne

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie

Whiskey Tender: A Memoir by Deborah Jackson Taffa

Poetry

Wrong Norma by Anne Carson

[…]: Poems by Fady Joudah

mother by m.s. RedCherries

Modern Poetry by Diane Seuss

Something About Living by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha

Young People’s Literature

Buffalo Dreamer by Violet Duncan

The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky by Josh Galarza

The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly

Kareem Between by Shifa Saltagi Safadi

The Unboxing of a Black Girl by Angela Shanté

Translated Literature

The Book Censor’s Library by Bothayna Al-Essa, translated from the Arabic by Ranya Abdelrahman and Sawad Hussain

Ædnan by Linnea Axelsson, translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel

The Villain’s Dance by Fiston Mwanza Mujila, translated from the French by Roland Glasser

Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated from the Mandarin Chinese by Lin King

Where the Wind Calls Home by Samar Yazbek, Translated from the Arabic by Leri Price

You can find the longlists for each of the categories here:

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