Image: National Book Foundation
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
See also:
US National Book Award 2024 Longlists: Translated Literature
US National Book Award 2024 Longlists: Fiction
US National Book Award 2024 Longlists: Nonfiction
US National Book Award 2024 Longlists: Young People’s Literature
US National Book Award 2024 Longlists: Poetry
Winners To Be Announced on November 20
As Publishing Perspectives readers know, each year the United States’ National Book Foundation releases five longlists of a total 50 titles in contention for the National Book Awards.
The organization then releases all five of its shortlists at once, and today (October 1) is the day for the release of that total of 25 titles. The program calls these “finalists,” while they are called shortlistees by most of the other myriad book competitions in the international publishing sphere.
As you’ll remember, the invitation-only formal ceremony and fundraiser for the foundation is scheduled for November 20 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City, and it’s always a sharply staged and efficiently choreographed evening.
In this 75th anniversary iteration of the program, winners of the National Book Awards receive US$10,000, a bronze medal, and statue. Shortlistees receive $1,000 and a bronze medal. Winners and finalists in the Translated Literature category split those purses evenly between author and translator.
Also on November 20, the program’s two lifetime achievement awards will be presented. As we’ve reported, the 2024 Distinguished Contribution Medalist is Barbara Kingsolver, and the publisher Paul Coates is the winner of this year’s Literarian Award.
Across the five categories, one writer and one translator have been previously honored by the foundation: Leri Price and Samar Yazbek were finalists in 2021 for Planet of Clay, and Price was longlisted in 2023 for No One Prayed Over Their Graves and was a finalist in 2019 for Death Is Hard Work, both written by Khaled Khalifa.
All the shortlistees in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature are first-time National Book Award honorees.
Ten independent and university publishers are represented. Five of the 25 finalist authors are being shortlisted for debut publications.
All told, publishers submitted a total of 1,917 books for this year’s National Book Awards directed into these categories:
- 141 submissions in Translated Literature
- 473 submissions in Fiction
- 671 submissions in Nonfiction
- 299 submissions in Poetry
- 333 submissions in Young People’s Literature
The 2024 Translated Literature Finalists
The US National Book Awards Translated Literature category 2024 longlist
The Translated Literature longlistees this year were published originally in Arabic, Danish, French, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and Swedish.
Our coverage of the Translated Literature longlist is here.
| Author | Title | Original Language | Translator | Publisher / Imprint |
| Bothayna Al-Ess | The Book Censor’s Library | Arabic | Ranya Abdelrahman and Sawad Hussain | Restless Books |
| Linnea Axelsson | Ædnan | Swedish | Saskia Vogel | Penguin Random House / Knopf |
| Fiston Mwanza Mujila | The Villain’s Dance | French | Roland Glasser | Deep Vellum Publishing / Deep Vellum |
| Yáng Shuāng-zǐ | Taiwan Travelogue | Mandarin | Lin King | Graywolf Press |
| Samar Yazbek | Where the Wind Calls Home | Arabic | Lerei Price | World Editions |
The 2024 Fiction Finalists
The US National Book Awards Fiction category 2024 longlist
Our coverage of the Fiction longlist is here.
| Author | Title | Publisher / Imprint |
| Pemi Aguda | Ghostroots | WW Norton |
| Kaveh Akbar | Martyr! | Penguin Random House / Knopf |
| Percival Everett | James | Penguin Random House / Doubleday |
| Miranda July | All Fours | Penguin Random House / Riverhead Books |
| Hisham Matar | My Friends | Penguin Random House / Random House |
The 2024 Nonfiction Finalists
The US National Book Awards Nonfiction catetory 2024 longlist
Our coverage of the Nonfiction longlist is here.
The 2024 Poetry Finalists
The US National Book Awards Poetry category 2024 longlist
Our coverage of the Poetry longlist is here.
| Author | Title | Publisher / Imprint |
| Anne Carson | Wrong Norma | New Directions Publishing |
| Fady Joudah | […] | Milkweed Editions |
| m.s. RedCherries | Mother | Penguin Random House / Penguin Books |
| Diane Seuss | Modern Poetry | Graywolf Press |
| Lena Khalaf Tuffaha | Something About Living | University of Akron Press |
The 2024 Young People’s Literature Finalists
The US National Book Awards Young People’s Literature 2024 longlist
Our coverage of the Young People’s Literature longlist is here.
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 on international publishing rights is here, and more on the United States’ market is here.
About the Author
