The longlists for this year’s National Book Awards have been announced in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature.

The finalists will be named on October 7th, followed by the announcement of the winners on November 19th at the 76th National Book Awards Ceremony, which will be livestreamed for all to see. You can sign up to watch it for free by clicking here.

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.
 

2025 Longlists

Fiction

• THE TRUE TRUE STORY OF RAJA THE GULLIBLE (AND HIS MOTHER) by Rabih Alameddine (Grove Press)
• FLASHLIGHT by Susan Choi (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• THE WILDERNESS by Angela Flournoy (Mariner Books)
• THE SISTERS by Jonas Hassen Khemiri (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• A GUARDIAN AND A THIEF by Megha Majumdar (Knopf)
• ONLY SON by Kevin Moffett (McSweeney’s)
• THE ANTIDOTE by Karen Russell (Knopf)
• NORTH SUN: Or, the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther, by Ethan Rutherford (A Strange Object)
• PALAVER by Bryan Washington (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• THE PELICAN CHILD by Joy Williams (Knopf)

Nonfiction

• ONE DAY, EVERYONE WILL HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AGAINST THIS by Omar El Akkad (Knopf)
• BLACK MOSES: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State, by Caleb Gayle (Riverhead Books)
• MOTHERLAND: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy, by Julia Ioffe (Ecco)
• FOR THE SUN AFTER LONG NIGHTS: The Story of Iran’s Women-Led Uprising, by Fatemeh Jamalpour and Nilo Tabrizy (Pantheon Books)
• THINGS IN NATURE MERELY GROW by Yiyun Li (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF H. LAN THAO LAM by Lana Lin (Dorothy, a publishing project)
• RUN THE SONG: Writing About Running About Listening, by Ben Ratliff (Graywolf Press)
• WARDS OF THE STATE: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care, by Claudia Rowe (Abrams Press)
• WHEN IT ALL BURNS: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World, by Jordan Thomas (Riverhead Books)
• THE SALT STONES: Seasons of a Shepherd’s Life, by Helen Whybrow (Milkweed Editions)

Poetry

• DEATH DOES NOT END AT THE SEA by Gbenga Adesina (University of Nebraska Press)
• THE NEW ECONOMY by Gabrielle Calvocoressi (Copper Canyon Press)
• BECOMING GHOST by Cathy Linh Che (Washington Square Press)
• SCORCHED EARTH by Tiana Clark (Washington Square Press)
• DEATH OF THE FIRST IDEA by Rickey Laurentiis (Knopf)
• COLD THIEF PLACE by Esther Lin (Alice James Books)
• STAY DEAD by Natalie Shapero (Copper Canyon Press)
• I DO KNOW SOME THINGS by Richard Siken (Copper Canyon Press)
• THE INTENTIONS OF THUNDER: New and Selected Poems, by Patricia Smith (Scribner)
• TERROR COUNTER by Fargo Nissim Tbakhi (Deep Vellum)

Translated Literature

• ON THE CALCULATION OF VOLUME (Book III) by Solvej Balle, translated from the Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell (New Directions Publishing)
• THE QUEEN OF SWORDS by Jazmina Barrera, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney (Two Lines Press)
• WE ARE GREEN AND TREMBLING by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated from the Spanish by Robin Myers (New Directions Publishing)
• THE REMEMBERED SOLDIER by Anjet Daanje, translated from the Dutch by David McKay (New Vessel Press)
• HUNCHBACK by Saou Ichikawa, translated from the Japanese by Polly Barton (Hogarth)
• WE COMPUTERS: A Ghazal Novel, by Hamid Ismailov, translated from the Uzbek by Shelley Fairweather-Vega (Yale University Press)
• WE DO NOT PART by Han Kang, translated from the Korean by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris (Hogarth)
• SLEEP PHASE by Mohamed Kheir, translated from the Arabic by Robin Moger (Two Lines Press)
• PERFECTION by Vincenzo Latronico, translated from the Italian by Sophie Hughes (New York Review Books)
• SAD TIGER by Neige Sinno, translated from the French by Natasha Lehrer (Seven Stories Press)

Young People’s Literature

• A SEA OF LEMON TREES: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez, by María Dolores Águila (Roaring Brook Press)
• THE CORRUPTION OF HOLLIS BROWN by K. Ancrum (HarperCollins)
• THE INCREDIBLY HUMAN HENSON BLAYZE by Derrick Barnes (Viking Books for Young Readers)
• A BIRD IN THE AIR MEANS WE CAN STILL BREATHE by Mahogany L. Browne (Crown Books for Young Readers)
• A WORLD WORTH SAVING by Kyle Lukoff (Dial Books for Young Readers)
• THE LEAVING ROOM by Amber McBride (Feiwel & Friends)
• THE TEACHER OF NOMAD LAND: A World War II Story, by Daniel Nayeri (Levine Querido)
• TRUTH IS by Hannah V. Sawyerr (Amulet Books)
• SONG OF A BLACKBIRD by Maria van Lieshout (First Second)
• (S)KIN by Ibi Zoboi (Versify)