By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
See also:
The UN’s Melissa Fleming: A ‘Summit of the Future’ and IPA’s Congress
US National Book Award 2024 Longlists: Nonfiction
US National Book Award 2024 Longlists: Young People’s Books
US National Book Award 2024 Longlists: Translated Literature
A Fourth of Five Categories’ 2024 Longlists
In this long week of longlist announcements from the National Book Foundation, we have today the fiction category list. This is the fourth of the five longlists we have published.
The formal ceremony and fundraiser for the National Book Foundation and its 75th National Book Awards is on November 20 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.
It will interest some in our international publishing-industry readership that publishers submitted 473 titles for consideration in this year’s fiction competition, as compared to the 671 books submitted by publishers in nonfiction this year.
What’s more, fiction entries were down this year, last year’s number being 496. Nonfiction entries, on the other hand, were substantially up, with that 671 entries this year over 638 last year.
The observation here is that neither category may be “better” in some inherent way, but the custom of having fiction arrive last in the listings and in the awards ceremony—like Santa Claus at the end of the parade—may be worth reconsidering. Fiction tends to get the lion’s share of the attention and place of honor. Nonfiction however, is a bigger engine of the industry based on these submission patterns, and yet will be heard about far less than is fiction.
Jurors for the 2024 fiction list this time are Jamie Ford, Lauren Groff (chair), Zeyn Joukhadar, Chawa Magaña, and Reginald McKnight.
The 2024 Nonfiction Longlist
| Author | Title | Publisher / Imprint |
| Pemi Aguda | Ghostroots | WW Norton |
| Kaveh Akbar | Martyr! | Penguin Random House / Knopf |
| Jessica Anthony | The Most | Hachette Book Group / Little, Brown |
| Karla Cornejo Villavicencio | Catalina | Penguin Random House / One World |
| Percival Everett | James | Penguin Random House / Doubleday |
| Miranda July | All Fours | Penguin Random House / Riverhead Books |
| Rachel Kushner | Creation Lake | Simon & Schuster / Scribner |
| Hisham Matar | My Friends | Penguin Random House / Random House |
| Sam Sax | Yr Dead | McSweeney’s |
| Tony Tulathimutte | Rejection | HarperCollins Publishers / William Morrow |
As always, the jury’s decisions are made independently of the National Book Foundation staff and board of directors and deliberations are strictly confidential.
More related reading:
US 2024 Distinguished Contribution Medalist: Barbara Kingsolver
Publisher Paul Coates Wins the US 2024 Literarian Award
US National Book Award: Opening to Non-US Citizens
The US National Book Foundation Issues US$350,000 in Hawthornden Grants
More from Publishing Perspectives on the National Book Awards in the United States is here and more on the huge field of international book awards and prizes is here. More from us on fiction is here, more on international publishing rights is here, and more on the United States’ market is here.
About the Author
