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    Here are the 2021 National Book Award Finalists.

    Emily Temple
    By 
    October 5, 2021, 10:15am

    Today, the National Book Foundation announced the twenty-five finalists for the 2021 National Book Awards—five each in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, translated literature, poetry, and young people’s literature. This year’s winners will be announced live on Wednesday, November 17th at the National Book Awards Ceremony, which this year will again be held online. Winners will receive $10,000 and a bronze medal and statue; Finalists will receive $1,000 and a bronze medal. This year, the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters will be presented to Karen Tei Yamashita, and the Foundation’s Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community will be presented to Nancy Pearl.

    Here are the twenty-five finalists:

    FICTION

    Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land
    Scribner / Simon & Schuster

    Lauren Groff, Matrix
    Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House

    Laird Hunt, Zorrie
    Bloomsbury Publishing

    Robert Jones, Jr., The Prophets
    G. P. Putnam’s Sons / Penguin Random House

    Jason Mott, Hell of a Book
    Dutton / Penguin Random House

    *

    NONFICTION

    Hanif Abdurraqib, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance
    Random House / Penguin Random House

    Lucas Bessire, Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains
    Princeton University Press

    Grace M. Cho, Tastes Like War: A Memoir
    Feminist Press at the City University of New York

    Nicole Eustace, Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America
    Liveright / W. W. Norton & Company

    Tiya Miles, All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
    Random House / Penguin Random House

    *

    POETRY

    Desiree C. Bailey, What Noise Against the Cane
    Yale University Press

    Martín Espada, Floaters
    W. W. Norton & Company

    Douglas Kearney, Sho
    Wave Books

    Hoa Nguyen, A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure
    Wave Books

    Jackie Wang, The Sunflower Cast A Spell To Save Us From The Void
    Nightboat Books

    *

    TRANSLATED LITERATURE

    Elisa Shua Dusapin, Winter in Sokcho
    Translated from the French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins
    (Open Letter)

    Ge Fei, Peach Blossom Paradise
    Translated from the Chinese by Canaan Morse
    (New York Review Books)

    Nona Fernández, The Twilight Zone
    Translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer
    (Graywolf Press)

    Benjamín Labatut, When We Cease to Understand the World
    Translated from the Spanish by Adrian Nathan West
    (New York Review Books)

    Samar Yazbek, Planet of Clay
    Translated from the Arabic by Leri Price
    (World Editions)

    *

    YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE

    Shing Yin Khor, The Legend of Auntie Po
    (Kokila / Penguin Random House)

    Malinda Lo, Last Night at the Telegraph Club
    (Dutton Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House)

    Kyle Lukoff, Too Bright to See
    (Dial Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House)

    Kekla Magoon, Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People
    (Candlewick Press)

    Amber McBride, Me (Moth)
    (Feiwel and Friends / Macmillan Publishers)

    finalists literary prizes National Book Awards National Book Foundation The 2021 National Book Awards

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