The National Book Foundation has announced the 2023 National Book Award shortlists. The winners in each of the five categories—fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature, and young people's literature—will be announced during an awards ceremony on November 15.
Fiction
- Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Pantheon)
- Temple Folk by Aaliyah Bilal (S&S)
- This Other Eden by Paul Harding (Norton)
- The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen (Holt)
- Blackouts by Justin Torres (FSG)
Nonfiction
- The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned Blackhawk (Yale UP)
- Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice by Cristina Rivera Garza (Hogarth)
- Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe (FSG)
- We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir by Raja Shehadeh (Other Press)
- Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World by John Vaillant (Knopf)
Poetry
- How to Communicate by John Lee Clark (Norton)
- from unincorporated territory [åmot] by Craig Santos Perez (Omnidawn)
- suddenly we by Evie Shockley (Wesleyan UP)
- Tripas by Brandon Som (Georgia Review)
- From From by Monica Youn (Graywolf)
Translated Literature
- Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, translated from the Korean by Anton Hur (Algonquin)
- Beyond the Door of No Return by David Diop, translated from the French by Sam Taylor (FSG)
- The Words That Remain by Stênio Gardel, translated from the Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato (New Vessel)
- Abyss by Pilar Quintana, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman (World Editions)
- On a Woman’s Madness by Astrid Roemer, translated from the Dutch by Lucy Scott (Two Lines)
Young People's Literature
- Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow (Candlewick)
- Huda F Cares? by Huda Fahmy (Dial)
- Big by Vashti Harrison (Little, Brown)
- The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine by Katherine Marsh (Roaring Brook)
- A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat (First Second)
A total of 496 books were submitted for the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction. The judges are Steph Cha, Calvin Crosby, Silas House, Mat Johnson (chair), and Helena María Viramontes.
A total of 638 books were submitted for the 2023 National Book Award for Nonfiction. The judges are Hanif Abdurraqib, Ada Ferrer (chair), James Fugate, Sarah Schulman, and Sonia Shah.
A total of 295 books were submitted for the 2023 National Book Award for Poetry. The judges are Rick Barot, Heid E. Erdrich (chair), Jonathan Farmer, Raina J. León, and Solmaz Sharif.
A total of 154 books were submitted for the 2023 National Book Award for Translated Literature. The judges are Geoffrey Brock, Arthur Malcolm Dixon, Cristina Rodriguez, T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, and Jeremy Tiang (chair).
A total of 348 books were submitted for the 2023 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. The judges are Claudette S. McLinn (chair), Sarah Park Dahlen, Kyle Lukoff, justin a. reynolds, and Sabaa Tahir.
