Here are the finalists for the 2020 National Book Awards.
Today, The Washington Post announced all of the finalists for the 2020 National Book Awards. The twenty-five finalists were selected from fifty longlisted writers across five genres—Young People’s Literature, Translated Literature, Poetry, Nonfiction, and Fiction—by a distinguished panel of literary experts. Of the finalists, two writers have been previously honored by the National Book Foundation: Lydia Millet, who was longlisted in 2016 for her novel Sweet Lamb of Heaven, and Charles Yu, who was a 2007 5 Under 35 honoree. Eight out of twenty-five titles are from debut writers.
The winner in each category will be announced live at the virtual National Book Awards Ceremony on November 18th. A hearty congrats to all!
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Finalists for the 2020 National Book Awards
FICTION
Rumaan Alam, Leave the World Behind
Lydia Millet, A Children’s Bible
Deesha Philyaw, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain
Charles Yu, Interior Chinatown
NONFICTION
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, The Undocumented Americans
Claudio Saunt, Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory
Jenn Shapland, My Autobiography of Carson McCullers
Les Payne and Tamara Payne, The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
Jerald Walker, How to Make a Slave and Other Essays
YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE
Kacen Callender, King and the Dragonflies
Traci Chee, We Are Not Free
Candice Iloh, Every Body Looking
Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed, When Stars are Scattered
Gavriel Savit, The Way Back
TRANSLATED LITERATURE
Anja Kampmann, High as the Waters
Translated from the German by Anne Posten
Jonas Hassen Khemiri, The Family Clause
Translated from the Swedish by Alice Menzies
Yu Miri, Tokyo Ueno Station
Translated from the Japanese by Morgan Giles
Pilar Quintana, The Bitch
Translated from the Spanish Lisa Dillman
Adania Shibli, Minor Detail
Translated from the Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette
POETRY
Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, A Treatise on Stars
Tommye Blount, Fantasia for the Man in Blue
Don Mee Choi, DMZ Colony
Anthony Cody, Borderland Apocrypha
Natalie Diaz, Postcolonial Love Poem
