
2024 National Book Awards Shortlist Announced
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:
Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.
More breaking news here
- The Most Read Books on Goodreads This Week
- New Hunger Games Novel Sells More Than 1.5 million World English copies
- Check Out the Crime Writers for Trans Rights 2025 Auction!
- Mariann Edgar Budde—the Bishop Criticized by Trump—Has 2 Books for Young Readers Coming Out
- VAMPIRE DIARIES Author L.J. Smith Has Died
- The Winners of the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Awards Are Here
- The Most Read Books on Goodreads This Week
- The Most Read Books on Goodreads This Week
- The Best Books to Read This Spring, According to the New York Times
- Here Are This Year’s Nebula Awards Finalists