The National Book Foundation has opened the submissions process for the National Book Awards and announced the 25 judges who will determine the list of nominees for the 2018 awards.
The 25 judges will first determine the longlist of 10 nominees in each category and then determine short lists of five nominees across the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Young People’s Literature, and the newly added category of Translated Literature.
Information on submitting titles for consideration is available on the National Book Foundation website.
Judges represent a wide variety of literary expertise and experience and include writers, academics, critics, librarians, as well as previous winners of NBA, Pulitzer and National Book Critic Circle awards. Among the judges serving this year are Chris Bachelder and Laila Lalami (Fiction); Annette Gordon-Reed (Nonfiction), Mary Jo Bank (Poetry); Harold Augenbraum (Translation) and Valerie Koehler (Young People’s Literature).
A complete list of all judges for this year’s National Book Awards is available on the National Book Foundation website.
The longlists will be announced in September, and the shortlists revealed in October. The winners in all categories will be announced at the 69th National Book Awards ceremony, held in New York City on November 14.
Lisa Lucas, executive director of the NBF, called the NBA judging process a “a serious undertaking.” She added: “We have full confidence that this year’s panelists will pull from their deep wells of exeptise to make their deisions with enthusiastic and skilled discernment.”
