Meet the 2017 National Book Award Finalists (and Winners!)
Updated to add: Congratulations to the winners of this year's award!
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen
Half-light: Collected Poems 1965-2016 by Frank Bidart
Far from the Tree by Robin Benway
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The literati are eagerly anticipating this year's National Book Award winners, who will be announced on Wednesday, November 15, around 7:20 PM.
First thing Thursday morning, the Library will have dozens of new copies of the winning books available in our catalog— and you can check out not only the current nominees, but also earlier works by the authors. Links are below, along with special features, including your chance to hear Masha Gessen speak at the Library on December 18 and a recorded LIVE from the NYPL conversation between Jesmyn Ward, William Jelani Cobb, and Khalil Gibran Muhammad. Happy award season!
Fiction
Dark at the Crossing by Elliot Ackerman
The Leavers by Lisa Ko
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado
Sing, Unburied, Singby Jesmyn Ward
Nonfiction
Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America by Frances FitzGerald
The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean
Poetry
Half-light: Collected Poems 1965-2016 by Frank Bidart
The Book of Endings by Leslie Harrison
WHEREAS by Layli Long Soldier
In the Language of My Captor by Shane McCrae
Don’t Call Us Dead: Poems by Danez Smith
Young People's Literature
What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold
Far from the Tree by Robin Benway
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez
Clayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Williams-Garcia
American Street by Ibi Zoboi
Check out interviews with all the finalists on the National Book Foundation's website. And let us know your favorite nominated books in the comments!
Finalist Danez Smith with Librarian Gwen Glazer
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Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.
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