The winners of the 2018 National Book Award in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry and Young People's Literature were announced at the 69th National Book Awards Benefit Dinner and Ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on November 14, 2018.

Two lifetime achievement awards were also presented at the ceremony: Isabel Allende was recognized with the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, presented by Luís Alberto Urrea; and Doron Weber, Vice President, Programs and Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, received the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community, presented by Margot Lee Shetterly.

Established in 1950, the National Book Award is an American literary prize given to writers by writers and administered by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization. More information about the National Book Awards can be found here.
 

2018 Winners

Fiction
THE FRIEND by Sigrid Nunez (Riverhead Books)

Nonfiction
THE NEW NEGRO: The Life of Alain Locke, by Jeffrey C. Stewart (Oxford University Press)

Poetry
INDECENCY by Justin Phillip Reed (Coffee House Press)

Translated Literature
THE EMISSARY by Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani (New Directions)

Young People’s Literature
THE POET X by Elizabeth Acevedo (HarperTeen)

2018 Shortlists

Fiction

• A LUCKY MAN by Jamel Brinkley (Graywolf Press)
• FLORIDA by Lauren Groff (Riverhead Books)
• WHERE THE DEAD SIT TALKING by Brandon Hobson (Soho Press)
• THE GREAT BELIEVERS by Rebecca Makkai (Viking)
• THE FRIEND by Sigrid Nunez (Riverhead Books)

Nonfiction

• THE INDIAN WORLD OF GEORGE WASHINGTON: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation, by Colin G. Calloway (Oxford University Press)
• AMERICAN EDEN: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic, by Victoria Johnson (Liveright)
• HEARTLAND: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, by Sarah Smarsh (Scribner)
• THE NEW NEGRO: The Life of Alain Locke, by Jeffrey C. Stewart (Oxford University Press)
• WE THE CORPORATIONS: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights, by Adam Winkler (Liveright)

Poetry

• WOBBLE by Rae Armantrout (Wesleyan University Press)
• AMERICAN SONNETS FOR MY PAST AND FUTURE ASSASSIN by Terrance Hayes (Penguin Books)
• GHOST OF by Diana Khoi Nguyen (Omnidawn Publishing)
• INDECENCY by Justin Phillip Reed (Coffee House Press)
• EYE LEVEL by Jenny Xie (Graywolf Press)

Translated Literature

• DISORIENTAL by Négar Djavadi, translated by Tina Kover (Europa Editions)
• LOVE by Hanne Ørstavik, translated by Martin Aitken (Archipelago Books)
• TRICK by Domenico Starnone, translated by Jhumpa Lahiri (Europa Editions)
• THE EMISSARY by Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani (New Directions)
• FLIGHTS by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft (Riverhead Books)

Young People’s Literature

• THE POET X by Elizabeth Acevedo (HarperTeen)
• THE ASSASSINATION OF BRANGWAIN SPURGE by M. T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin (Candlewick Press)
• THE TRUTH AS TOLD BY MASON BUTTLE by Leslie Connor (Katherine Tegen Books)
• THE JOURNEY OF LITTLE CHARLIE by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic Press)
• HEY, KIDDO by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Graphix)

2018 Longlists

Fiction

• A LUCKY MAN by Jamel Brinkley (Graywolf Press)
• GUN LOVE by Jennifer Clement (Hogarth)
• FLORIDA by Lauren Groff (Riverhead Books)
• THE BOATBUILDER by Daniel Gumbiner (McSweeney’s)
• WHERE THE DEAD SIT TALKING by Brandon Hobson (Soho Press)
• AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE by Tayari Jones (Algonquin Books)
• THE GREAT BELIEVERS by Rebecca Makkai (Viking)
• THE FRIEND by Sigrid Nunez (Riverhead Books)
• THERE THERE by Tommy Orange (Knopf)
• HEADS OF THE COLORED PEOPLE: Stories, by Nafissa Thompson-Spires (Atria/37 INK)

Nonfiction

• ONE PERSON, NO VOTE: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy, by Carol Anderson (Bloomsbury Publishing)
• THE INDIAN WORLD OF GEORGE WASHINGTON: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation, by Colin G. Calloway (Oxford University Press)
• DIRECTORATE S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, by Steve Coll (Penguin Press)
• BROTHERS OF THE GUN: A Memoir of the Syrian War, by Marwan Hisham and Molly Crabapple (One World)
• AMERICAN EDEN: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic, by Victoria Johnson (Liveright)
• THE TANGLED TREE: A Radical New History of Life, by David Quammen (Simon & Schuster)
• HEARTLAND: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, by Sarah Smarsh (Scribner)
• CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES: American Crises (and Essays), by Rebecca Solnit (Haymarket Books)
• THE NEW NEGRO: The Life of Alain Locke, by Jeffrey C. Stewart (Oxford University Press)
• WE THE CORPORATIONS: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights, by Adam Winkler (Liveright)

Poetry

• WOBBLE by Rae Armantrout (Wesleyan University Press)
• FEELD by Jos Charles (Milkweed Editions)
• BE WITH by Forrest Gander (New Directions)
• AMERICAN SONNETS FOR MY PAST AND FUTURE ASSASSIN by Terrance Hayes (Penguin Books)
• MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAS by J. Michael Martinez (Penguin Books)
• GHOST OF by Diana Khoi Nguyen (Omnidawn Publishing)
• INDECENCY by Justin Phillip Reed (Coffee House Press)
• LO TERCIARIO/THE TERTIARY by Raquel Salas Rivera (Timeless, Infinite Light)
• MONUMENT: Poems New and Selected, by Natasha Trethewey (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• EYE LEVEL by Jenny Xie (Graywolf Press)

Translated Literature

• DISORIENTAL by Négar Djavadi, translated by Tina Kover (Europa Editions)
• COMEMADRE by Roque Larraquy, translated by Heather Cleary (Coffee House Press)
• THE BEEKEEPER: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq, by Dunya Mikhail, translated by Max Weiss and Dunya Mikhail (New Directions)
• ONE PART WOMAN by Perumal Murugan, translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan (Black Cat)
• LOVE by Hanne Ørstavik, translated by Martin Aitken (Archipelago Books)
• WAIT, BLINK: A Perfect Picture of Inner Life by Gunnhild Øyehaug, translated by Kari Dickson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• TRICK by Domenico Starnone, translated by Jhumpa Lahiri (Europa Editions)
• THE EMISSARY by Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani (New Directions)
• FLIGHTS by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft (Riverhead Books)
• AETHERIAL WORLDS by Tatyana Tolstaya, translated by Anya Migdal (Knopf)

Young People’s Literature

• THE POET X by Elizabeth Acevedo (HarperTeen)
• THE ASSASSINATION OF BRANGWAIN SPURGE by M. T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin (Candlewick Press)
• WE'LL FLY AWAY by Bryan Bliss (Greenwillow Books)
• THE TRUTH AS TOLD BY MASON BUTTLE by Leslie Connor (Katherine Tegen Books)
• THE JOURNEY OF LITTLE CHARLIE by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic Press)
• HEY, KIDDO by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Graphix)
• A VERY LARGE EXPANSE OF SEA by Tahereh Mafi (HarperTeen)
• BLOOD WATER PAINT by Joy McCullough (Dutton Children’s Books)
• BOOTS ON THE GROUND: America’s War in Vietnam, by Elizabeth Partridge (Viking Children’s Books)
• WHAT THE NIGHT SINGS by Vesper Stamper (Knopf Books for Young Readers)