2018 National Book Awards Finalists Announced

The National Book Foundation announced the National Book Award finalists today on Buzzfeed News’ AM to DM. Each category – fiction, nonfiction, poetry, young people’s literature, and (the newest one) translated literature – has been narrowed down from the longlist ten to the finalist five. The awards will be revealed in New York City and online on November 14.

Here’s a list of the finalists in all five categories with bonus links where available:

Fiction:

• A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley (Our interview with Brinkley; Brinkley’s 2017 Year in Reading)
• Florida by Lauren Groff (Our review; The Millions interview with Groff)
• Where the Dead Sit Talking by Brandon Hobson (Featured in our February Book Preview)
• The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai (Our interview with Makkai)
• The Friend by Sigrid Nunez (Nunez’s 2010 Year in Reading)

Nonfiction:

• The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation by Colin G. Calloway
• American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic by Victoria Johnson
• Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh (Smarsh’s 2017 Year in Reading)
• The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey C. Stewart
• We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights by Adam Winkler
  

Poetry: 

• Wobble by Rae Armantrout
• American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes (Our review)
• Ghost Of by Diana Khoi Nguyen
• Indecency by Justin Phillip Reed
• Eye Level by Jenny Xie (ft. in our April Must-Read Poetry preview)

Translated Literature:

• Disoriental by Négar Djavadi; translated by Tina Kover (Featured in our 2018 Great Book Preview)
• Love by Hanne Ørstavik;  translated by Martin Aitken
• Trick by Domenico Starnone; translated by Jhumpa Lahiri (An essay on learning new languages)
• The Emissary by Yoko Tawada; translated by Margaret Mitsutani (Tawada’s 2017 Year in Reading)
• Flights by Olga Tokarczuk; translated by Jennifer Croft (Our review; 2018 Man Booker International Prize)

Young People’s Literature:

• The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
• The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge by M. T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin (Our three-part conversation from 2009 with Anderson)
• The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle by Leslie Connor
• The Journey of Little Charlie by Christopher Paul Curtis
• Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka