National Book Award Finalists 2021
They’re here! They’re here! Drumroll please: The 2021 National Book Awards Finalists have just been announced — the finalists are a mix of household names and soon-to-be household names, and fabulous reading abounds across all five categories. We can’t wait to see who the judges pick when the winners are announced on November 17th.
The fiction finalists include some of our favorite books from this year, including Cloud Cuckoo Land, which we think is one of the most remarkable novels we’ve seen in a while; Anthony Doerr joined us on our podcast, Poured Over to discuss his “novel about everything” earlier this month. Lauren Groff’s Matrix is an unforgettable story set in the 12th Century that we couldn’t put down; Lauren also joined us on Poured Over. Rounding out the Fiction finalists are three novels that shine a powerful light on America through both our history and our present-day: The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr., Zorrie by Laird Hunt, and Hell of a Book by Jason Mott.
The five nonfiction finalists speak powerfully to the American Experience: MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient Hanif Abdurraqib delivers a profound history about the connection of Black Performance to American culture in A Little Devil in America that sits alongside Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America by Nicole Eustace, an urgent and necessary re-examination of early America and three multidisciplinary books about love and family and the environment: All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient Tiya Miles, and Tastes Like War by Grace M. Cho and Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains by Lucas Bessire.
We’re always excited to see who take home the prize for Poetry. The 2021 finalists include, What Noise Against the Cane by Desiree C. Bailey, Floaters by Martín Espada, Sho by Douglas Kearney, A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure by Hoa Nguyen, and A Sunflower Casts a Spell to Save Us from the Void by Jackie Wang.
And we say the same for Literature in Translation, a relatively recent addition to the awards. This year’s finalists include: Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin, translated from the French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins; Peach Blossom Paradise by Ge Fei, translated from the Chinese by Canaan Morse; The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernández, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer; When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut, translated from the Spanish by Adrian Nathan West; and Planet of Clay by Samar Yazbek, translated from the Arabic by Leri Price.
It’s always a thrill to see who wins the award for Young People’s Literature, too. This year’s extraordinary finalists are: The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor, Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo, Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff, Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon, and Me (Moth) by Amber McBride.