All the Finalists for the 2024 National Book Awards
Earlier this week we covered the 2024 National Book Awards Longlists for Young People’s Literature and Translated Literature. Now the longlists for Nonfiction, Poetry, and Fiction have also been released, rounding out all the contenders for this year’s awards.
The National Book Awards were first established in 1950 to celebrate the best writing in the United States and have been overseen by the National Book Foundation since 1989. Submissions for each year’s awards open in mid-march and close in mid-May. To qualify for consideration, books must have been published in the United States between December 1 of the previous year and November 30 of the current year.
The shortlists for all five categories will be released early next month on Tuesday, October 1. The winners will be announced live at the 75th National Book Awards Ceremony ceremony on Wednesday, November 20, 2024.
Here are the longlist titles for Nonfiction, Poetry, and Fiction along with the judges for each category.
Nonfiction
Judges: Brenda J. Chiild, Anand Anand Giridharadas, Tressie McMillan Cottom (chair), Timothy Morton, Arvin Ramgoolam
There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib
Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are by Rebecca Boyle
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
The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives by Ernest Scheyder
A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America by Richard Slotkin
Whiskey Tender by Deborah Jackson Taffa
Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders by Vanessa Angélica Villarreal
Poetry
Judges: Richard Blanco (chair), Carolyn Forché, Tyehimba Jess, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Rena Priest
Wrong Norma by Anne Carson
[…]: Poems by Fady Joudah
Life on Earth by Dorianne Laux
Spectral Evidence by Gregory Pardlo
Silver by Rowan Ricardo Phillips
The Book of Wounded Sparrows by Octavio Quintanilla
mother by m.s. RedCherries
Modern Poetry by Diane Seuss
Something About Living by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Liontaming in America by Elizabeth Willis
Fiction
Judges: Jamie Ford, Lauren Groff (chair), Zeyn Joukhadar, Chawa Magaña, Reginald McKnight
Ghostroots by ‘Pemi Aguda
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
The Most by Jessica Anthony
Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
James by Percival Everett
All Fours by Miranda July
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
My Friends by Hisham Matar
Yr Dead by Sam Sax
Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte
Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.
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