WASHINGTON, October 16, 2026 – The world of literature has been electrified once again with twenty-five novelists, poets, and translators coming into focus as nominees for this country’s most prestigious literary award.
The National Book Foundation announced the nominees for the 2026 National Book Award, and an epic battle awaits come November in the fields of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, translated books, and children’s literature. This year’s shortlist comprises both experienced giants of the craft and fiercely original emerging writers, all nominated from the staggering number of 1,912 submissions.
Fourteen out of the sixteen shortlisted authors and translators have received recognition from the Foundation before. These include finalists in the fiction and non-fiction categories such as Edwidge Danticat and Valeria Luiselli, who was once a 5 Under 35 award winner. These lists come as a testament that small presses can still compete with corporate publishers head-on.
And this matters because these shortlists shape what stays on our nightstands for years to come.
Fiction readers are in for an intense showdown. Danticat’s Dèy and Luiselli’s Beginning Middle End form the star-studded roster along with Hannah Lillith Assadi’s Paradiso 17, Julián Delgado Lopera’s Pretend You’re Dead, I Carry You, and Morgan Thomas’s debut book Mad Eden.
Nonfiction readers have some tough stuff coming their way. Colin Asher’s The Midnight Special is all about the music of the prisoners, while Huna by Abdelrahman ElGendy is all about revolution and imprisonment in Egypt. Other contenders include Let the Poets Govern by Camonghne Felix, Mother Tongue by Sara Nović and Spawning Season by Joseph Osmundson.
Poetry features stunning collections from Victoria Chang (Tree of Knowledge), Carolina Ebeid (Hide), Brenda Hillman (Still House in the Desert), Fady Joudah (Exhibit G), and Susan Stewart (Bramble).
However, Translated Literature introduces international literary greats such as The School of Night by Karl Ove Knausgaard (trans. Martin Aitken), Centroeuropa by Vicente Luis Mora (trans. Rahul Bery), Night of a Thousand Hells by Intan Paramaditha (trans. Stephen Epstein & Tiffany Tsao), Pure Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr (trans. Lara Vergnaud), and Your Presence Is a Danger to Your Life by Samar Yazbek (trans. Leri Price).
Another category that is as competitive as ever is Young People’s Literature. The nominees include Holloway by Elana K. Arnold, When Tomorrow Burns by Tae Keller, That Which Feeds Us by Keala Kendall, The Fight of Our Lives: AIDS in America by David Levithan & Gabriel Duckels, and Shook by Julian Randall.
So what happens next?
Each finalist is awarded a $1,000 cash prize and a bronze medal. The winners—awarded a $10,000 cash prize and a brass trophy—will be announced during the 77th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner, taking place on Wednesday, November 18, 2026. This year’s ceremony will also recognize the lifetime achievement award winners, Salman Rushdie and Dr. Perri Klass.
Regardless of the ongoing online discussions about which author has been overlooked or which one deserves the highest recognition, it is quite obvious that these twenty-five books are going to shape our literary environment for some time to come.
