National Book Awards Names 2019 Longlists

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:

Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (Featured in our June preview)
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi (Read our 2019 interview with Choi)
Sabrina & Corinas by Kali Fajardo-Anstine (Featured in our Great First-Half 2019 Book Preview)
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James (Read a profile about James)
The Other Americans by Laila Lalami (Read Lalami’s 2018 Year in Reading entry)
Black Light by Kimberly King Parsons (Read our 2019 interview with Parsons)
The Need by Helen Phillips (Featured in our Great Second-Half 2019 Book Preview)
Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips (Featured in our Great First-Half 2019 Book Preview)
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (Read our review of Vuong’s debut)
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (Featured in our Great Second-Half 2019 Book Preview)

Nonfiction:

Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib (A 2016 Year in Reading alum)
The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom (Featured in our Great Second-Half 2019 Book Preview)
Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom (Featured in our Great First-Half 2019 Book Preview)
What You Have Heard is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance by Carolyn Forché
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present by David Treuer
The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America by Greg Grandin
Burn the Place: A Memoir by Iliana Regan
Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Solitary by Albert Woodfox with Leslie George

Poetry:

Variations on Dawn and Dusk by Dan Beachy-Quick
The Tradition by Jericho Brown (Read an excerpt from Brown’s collection)
“I”: New and Selected Poems by Toi Derricotte (Read our 2019 interview with Derricotte)
Build Yourself a Boat by Camonghne Felix
Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky (Featured in March’s Must-Read Poetry roundup)
A Sand Book by Ariana Reines
Dunce by Mary Ruefle
Be Recorder by Carmen Giménez Smith (Read an excerpt from Smith’s collection)
Sight Lines by Arthur Sze
Doomstead Days by Brian Teare

Translated Literature

When Death Takes Something from You Give It Back: Carl’s Book
by Naja Marie Aidt, translated by Denise Newman
The Collector of Leftover Souls by Eliane Brum, translated by Diane Grosklaus Whitty
Space Invaders by Nona Fernández, translated by Natasha Wimmer
Will and Testament by Vigdis Hjorth, translated by Charlotte Barslund
Death Is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa, translated by Leri Price
Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming by László Krasznahorkai, translated by Ottilie Mulzet (Read our review]
The Barefoot Woman by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated by Jordan Stump
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder (Featured in our Great Second-Half 2019 Book Preview)
Crossing by Pajtim Statovci, translated by David Hackston
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Read Gabe Habash’s profile of Tokarczuk)

Young People’s Literature:

The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander; illustrations by Kadir Nelson
Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi (Featured in our Great Second-Half 2019 Book Preview)
A Place to Belong by Cynthia Kadohata; illustrations by Julia Kuo
Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks by Jason Reynolds
Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay
Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Laura Ruby
1919: The Year That Changed America by Martin W. Sandler
Out of Salem by Hal Schrieve
Kiss Number 8 by Colleen AF Venable; illustrations by Ellen T. Crenshaw