Here are the finalists for the 2026 National Book Awards
NPR Does "the third time's the charm" apply to prestigious literary awards? Edwidge Danticat will have the opportunity to find out. She's now a three-time finalist for a National Book Award, which were announced Tuesday morning. Danticat's novel, Dèy, is about a woman who witnesses a violent gun attack in a Miami mall. Danticat's short story collection Krik? Krak! was a finalist for the prize in 1995, and her book Brother, I'm Dying, was a non-fiction finalist in 2007.
The other writers up for the 2026 fiction prize include Hannah Lillith Assadi, Julián Delgado Lopera, Valeria Luiselli, and debut novelist Morgan Thomas, whose book Mad Eden is a form-bending story following a patient navigator at a center providing gender-affirming care.
Similarly blending forms in the nonfiction category is Camonghne Felix. Her book Let the Poets Govern: A Declaration of Freedom is both a memoir and a call-to-action, drawing on Felix's background as a communications strategist. Felix is up against Colin Asher, Sara Nović, Joseph Osmundson, and Abdelrahman ElGendy, whose memoir, Huna, explores his time in an Egyptian prison.
The winners of the National Book Awards will be announced Nov. 18, 2026.
The Book Ahead 10 books we are looking forward to this fall Translated Literature Karl Ove Knausgaard, The School of Night, translated from the Norwegian by Martin AitkenVicente Luis Mora, Centroeuropa, translated from the Spanish by Rahul BeryIntan Paramaditha, Night of a Thousand Hells, translated from the Indonesian by Stephen J. Epstein and Tiffany TsaoMohamed Mbougar Sarr, Pure Men, translated from the French by Lara VergnaudSamar Yazbek, Your Presence Is a Danger to Your Life: Voices of Survival and Witness in Gaza, translated from the Arabic by Leri Price
Elana K. Arnold, HollowayTae Keller, When Tomorrow BurnsKeala Kendall, That Which Feeds Us: A Hawaiian GothicDavid Levithan and Gabriel Duckels, The Fight of Our Lives: AIDS in AmericaJulian Randall, Shook
NPR does not offer or accept money for coverage or interviews. Anyone who makes such an offer or request is not an NPR employee and does not represent NPR.
