The 2024 National Book Award Finalists Unveiled

Each year, the National Book Awards celebrate the most outstanding literary works across genres, offering readers a glimpse into the powerful, diverse voices shaping the literary landscape. In 2024, the selection process has proven to be as challenging as ever, with a wide array of compelling narratives, innovative storytelling, and bold explorations of identity, history, and culture. These finalists represent not only the best of contemporary literature but also the enduring impact of books to inspire, challenge, and connect us in an ever-evolving world.

The awards cover the following categories: Best Fiction, Best Nonfiction, Best Poetry, Best Translated Literature, and Best Young People’s Literature. Each category contains five finalists for a total of twenty-five. Each finalist receives $1,000 and a bronze medal, while the winners receive $10,000, a bronze medal, and a statue. In the case of the Best Translated Literature Award, the prize is split evenly between the author and the translator(s).

And now, here are the finalists for the 2024 National Book Awards:

Best Fiction

• Ghostroots by ‘Pemi Aguda
• Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
• James by Percival Everett
• All Fours by Miranda July
• My Friends by Hisham Matar

Best Nonfiction

• Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling by Jason De León
• Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church by Eliza Griswold
• Whiskey Tender by Deborah Jackson Taffa
• Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia by Kate Manne
• Knife by Salman Rushdie

Best Poetry

• Wrong Norma by Anne Carson
• […] by Fady Joudah
• mother by m.s. RedCherries
• Modern Poetry by Diane Seuss
• Something About Living by Lena Tuffaha

Best Translated Literature

• The Book Censor’s Library by Bothayna Al-Essa (Translated by Ranya Abdelrahman and Sawad Hussain)
• Ædnan by Linnea Axelsson (Translated by Saskia Vogel)
• The Villain’s Dance by Fiston Mwanza Mujila (Translated by Roland Glasser)
• Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-zi (Translated by Lin King)
• Where the Wind Calls Home by Samar Yazbek (Translated by Leri Price)

Best Young People’s Literature

• Buffalo Dreamer by Violet Duncan
• The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky by Josh Galarza
• The First State of Being by Erin Kelly
• Kareem Between by Shifa Saltagi Safadi
• The Unboxing of a Black Girl by Angela Shanté

Congratulations go out to the finalists!

In addition, lifetime achievement awards will be presented to Barbara Kingsolver (with the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters) and W. Paul Coates (with the Foundation’s Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community).

The winners will be announced on Wednesday, November 20th at the 75th National Book Awards Ceremony & Benefit Dinner at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. The event is invitation-only, but the ceremony will be broadcast over YouTube, Facebook and at the Foundation’s website. It will also air on Book TV on C-SPAN2 on Sunday, December 1st at 8pm EST.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Based near Toronto, Brandon is a news writer and Book Specialist for Book Notification who covers the world of books, maintains author pages, writes a variety of content, and is an avid reader of non-fiction and biographies.

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