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    Here are the finalists for the 2020 National Book Awards.

    Rasheeda Saka
    By 
    October 6, 2020, 10:45am

    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

    2020 National Book Awards Book Awards book news National Book Award finalist National Book Foundation

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