National Book Awards Names 2019 Longlists

Prizes
September 20, 2019 | 3 min read

Award season is back in full swing!

The National Book Foundation spent the week slowly revealing the National Book Award longlists. Established in 1950, the NBAs seek to “celebrate the best writing in America.” Starting on Monday, the 10-title longlists in nonfiction, poetry, young people’s literature, and translated literature were released on The New Yorker‘s Page Turner blog.

Here’s some fun facts about this year’s nominees:

  • The fiction list includes one previous winner, Colson Whitehead (2016), and one previous NBA judge, Laila Lalami (2018).
  • The nonfiction list includes three debut titles and one previous NBA finalist, Greg Grandin.
  • Olga Tokarczuk is a two-time nominee in the translated literature category, following last year’s inaugural award.
  • The Young Adult list includes one “5 Under 35” nominee, Akwaeke Emezi; one previous NBA winner, Cynthia Kadohata (2013); and four previous NBA nominees: Jason Reynolds (2016, 2017); Laura Ruby (2015); and Laurie Halse Anderson (1999, 2008, 2014).

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

Fiction:

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Nonfiction:

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Poetry:

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Translated Literature

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Young People’s Literature:

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The five-title shortlists will be announced on October 8, and the awards will be revealed in New York City on November 20.

is an associate editor for The Millions. She works in academic publishing by day and is a freelance writer and book reviewer by night. She tweets at @CarolynQuimby.

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