The 2017 National Book Award Finalists
Forty books entered, 20 books came out: Here are the 2017 National Book Award finalists.
Young People’s Literature
What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold
Far from the Tree by Robin Benway
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez
Clayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Williams-Garcia
American Street by Ibi Zoboi
The judges this year are:
- Suzanna Hermans
- Brendan Kiely
- Kekla Magoon
- Meg Medina
- Alex Sanchez
Poetry
Half-Light: Collected Poems 1965-2016 by Frank Bidart
The Book of Endings by Leslie Harrison
Whereas by Layli Long Soldier
In the Language of My Captor by Shane McCrae
Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith
The judges this year are:
- Gregory Pardlo
- Jane Mead
- Nick Flynn
- Monica Youn
- Richard Siken
Nonfiction
Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America by Frances FitzGerald
The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the F.B.I. by David Grann
Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean
The judges this year are:
Steve Bercu
Jeff Chang
Paula J. Giddings
Ruth Franklin
Valeria Luiselli
Fiction
Dark at the Crossing by Elliot Ackerman
The Leavers by Lisa Ko
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
The judges this year are:
- Alexander Chee
- Dave Eggers
- Annie Philbrick
- Karolina Waclawiak
- Jacqueline Woodson
The winners will be announced on November 15th. Last week, the NBA Foundation also announced its picks for the 5 Under 35 award.
