The winners of the 2020 National Book Award in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature and Young People's Literature were announced on November 18th at the first-ever virtual 71st National Book Awards Ceremony. Two lifetime achievement awards also were presented as part of the evening’s ceremony: Walter Mosley was recognized with the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, presented by Edwidge Danticat, and Carolyn Reidy posthumously received the Foundation’s Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.

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.
 

2020 Winners

Fiction

• INTERIOR CHINATOWN by Charles Yu (Pantheon)

Nonfiction

• THE DEAD ARE ARISING: The Life of Malcolm X, by Les Payne and Tamara Payne (Liveright)

Poetry

• DMZ COLONY by Don Mee Choi (Wave Books)

Translated Literature

• TOKYO UENO STATION by Yu Miri, translated from the Japanese by Morgan Giles (Riverhead Books)

Young People’s Literature

• KING AND THE DRAGONFLIES by Kacen Callender (Scholastic Press)
   

2020 Shortlists

Fiction

• LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND by Rumaan Alam (Ecco)
• A CHILDREN'S BIBLE by Lydia Millet (W. W. Norton & Company)
• THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES by Deesha Philyaw (West Virginia University Press)
• SHUGGIE BAIN by Douglas Stuart (Grove Press)
• INTERIOR CHINATOWN by Charles Yu (Pantheon)

Nonfiction

• THE UNDOCUMENTED AMERICANS by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (One World)
• THE DEAD ARE ARISING: The Life of Malcolm X, by Les Payne and Tamara Payne (Liveright)
• UNWORTHY REPUBLIC: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory, by Claudio Saunt (W. W. Norton & Company)
• MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CARSON McCULLERS by Jenn Shapland (Tin House Books)
• HOW TO MAKE A SLAVE AND OTHER ESSAYS by Jerald Walker (Mad Creek Books)

Poetry

• A TREATISE ON STARS by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge (New Directions)
• FANTASIA FOR THE MAN IN BLUE by Tommye Blount (Four Way Books)
• DMZ COLONY by Don Mee Choi (Wave Books)
• BORDERLAND APOCRYPHA by Anthony Cody (Omnidawn Publishing)
• POSTCOLONIAL LOVE POEM by Natalie Diaz (Graywolf Press)

Translated Literature

• HIGH AS THE WATERS RISE by Anja Kampmann, translated from the German by Anne Posten (Catapult)
• THE FAMILY CLAUSE by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, translated from the Swedish by Alice Menzies (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• TOKYO UENO STATION by Yu Miri, translated from the Japanese by Morgan Giles (Riverhead Books)
• THE BITCH by Pilar Quintana, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman (World Editions)
• MINOR DETAIL by Adania Shibli, translated from the Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette (New Directions)

Young People’s Literature

• KING AND THE DRAGONFLIES by Kacen Callender (Scholastic Press)
• WE ARE NOT FREE by Traci Chee (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• EVERY BODY LOOKING by Candice Iloh (Dutton Books for Young Readers)
• WHEN STARS ARE SCATTERED by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed (Dial Books for Young Readers)
• THE WAY BACK by Gavriel Savit (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
   

2020 Longlists

Fiction

• LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND by Rumaan Alam (Ecco)
• THE INDEX OF SELF-DESTRUCTIVE ACTS by Christopher Beha (Tin House Books)
• THE VANISHING HALF by Brit Bennett (Riverhead Books)
• IF I HAD TWO WINGS by Randall Kenan (W. W. Norton & Company)
• A BURNING by Megha Majumdar (Knopf)
• A CHILDREN'S BIBLE by Lydia Millet (W. W. Norton & Company)
• THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES by Deesha Philyaw (West Virginia University Press)
• SHUGGIE BAIN by Douglas Stuart (Grove Press)
• THE GREAT OFFSHORE GROUNDS by Vanessa Veselka (Knopf)
• INTERIOR CHINATOWN by Charles Yu (Pantheon)

Nonfiction

• IS RAPE A CRIME?: A Memoir, an Investigation, and a Manifesto, by Michelle Bowdler (Flatiron Books)
• THE UNDOCUMENTED AMERICANS by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (One World)
• IF THEN: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future, by Jill Lepore (Liveright)
• THE DEAD ARE ARISING: The Life of Malcolm X, by Les Payne and Tamara Payne (Liveright)
• UNWORTHY REPUBLIC: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory, by Claudio Saunt (W. W. Norton & Company)
• MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CARSON McCULLERS by Jenn Shapland (Tin House Books)
• OWLS OF THE EASTERN ICE: A Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl, by Jonathan C. Slaght (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• HOW TO MAKE A SLAVE AND OTHER ESSAYS by Jerald Walker (Mad Creek Books)
• AFROPESSIMISM by Frank B. Wilderson III (Liveright)
• CASTE: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson (Random House)

Poetry

• THE GALLEONS by Rick Barot (Milkweed Editions)
• A TREATISE ON STARS by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge (New Directions)
• TRAVESTY GENERATOR by Lillian-Yvonne Bertram (Noemi Press)
• FANTASIA FOR THE MAN IN BLUE by Tommye Blount (Four Way Books)
• OBIT by Victoria Chang (Copper Canyon Press)
• DMZ COLONY by Don Mee Choi (Wave Books)
• BORDERLAND APOCRYPHA by Anthony Cody (Omnidawn Publishing)
• GUILLOTINE by Eduardo C. Corral (Graywolf Press)
• POSTCOLONIAL LOVE POEM by Natalie Diaz (Graywolf Press)
• THE AGE OF PHILLIS by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (Wesleyan University Press)

Translated Literature

• THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE GREENGAGE TREE by Shokoofeh Azar, translated from the Persian by Anonymous (Europa Editions)
• THE HELIOS DISASTER by Linda Boström Knausgård, translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles (World Editions)
• HIGH AS THE WATERS RISE by Anja Kampmann, translated from the German by Anne Posten (Catapult)
• THE FAMILY CLAUSE by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, translated from the Swedish by Alice Menzies (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• HURRICANE SEASON by Fernanda Melchor, translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes (New Directions)
• TOKYO UENO STATION by Yu Miri, translated from the Japanese by Morgan Giles (Riverhead Books)
• THE STORY OF A GOAT by Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by N. Kalyan Raman (Black Cat)
• KIM JIYOUNG, BORN 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo, translated from the Korean by Jamie Chang (Liveright)
• THE BITCH by Pilar Quintana, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman (World Editions)
• MINOR DETAIL by Adania Shibli, translated from the Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette (New Directions)

Young People’s Literature

• KING AND THE DRAGONFLIES by Kacen Callender (Scholastic Press)
• WE ARE NOT FREE by Traci Chee (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• LIFTING AS WE CLIMB: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box, by Evette Dionne (Viking Books for Young Readers)
• APPLE: (Skin to the Core) by Eric Gansworth (Levine Querido)
• EVERY BODY LOOKING by Candice Iloh (Dutton Books for Young Readers)
• WHEN STARS ARE SCATTERED by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed (Dial Books for Young Readers)
• TROWBRIDGE ROAD by Marcella Pixley (Candlewick Press)
• HOW WE GOT TO THE MOON: The People, Technology, and Daring Feats of Science Behind Humanity’s Greatest Adventure, by John Rocco (Crown Books for Young Readers)
• THE WAY BACK by Gavriel Savit (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
• CEMETERY BOYS by Aiden Thomas (Swoon Reads)