National Book Award: Winners, Finalists and Longlisted Titles
The mission of the National Book Foundation is to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of great writing in America. National Book Awards are given five categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature.
Here we highlight the winners of African descent. The first African-American writer to win a National Book Award was Ralph Ellison, in 1953, for Invisible Man.
Check Out AALBC’s Coverage of the National Book Awards: 2024 – 2023 – 2017 – 2016 – 2015 – 2014 – 2013
9 Books Honored by the National Book Foundation in 2018
Winner - Nonfiction
The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke
by Jeffrey C. Stewart
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2019)
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- 2019 BCALA Literary Award
- 2019 American Book Award
Oxford University Press (Feb 01, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 944 pages
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Winner - Poetry
Indecency
by Justin Phillip Reed
List Price: $16.95Coffee House Press (May 08, 2018)
Poetry, Paperback, 112 pages
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Winner - Young People’s Literature
The Poet X
by Elizabeth Acevedo
List Price: $17.99HarperTeen (Mar 06, 2018)
Fiction, Hardcover, 368 pages
Target Age Group: Young Adult
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Finalist - Fiction
A Lucky Man: Stories
by Jamel Brinkley
List Price: $26.00Graywolf Press (May 08, 2018)
Fiction, Hardcover, 264 pages
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Finalist - Fiction
Heads of the Colored People (paperback): Stories
by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2019)
- Kirkus Prize Finalist/Winner 2018
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Atria / 37 Ink (Jan 22, 2019)
Fiction, Paperback, 224 pages
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Finalist - Poetry
American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin
by Terrance Hayes
List Price: $18.00Penguin Books (Jun 19, 2018)
Poetry, Paperback, 112 pages
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Finalist - Young People’s Literature
The Journey of Little Charlie
by Christopher Paul Curtis
List Price: $16.99Scholastic Press (Jan 30, 2018)
Fiction, Hardcover, 256 pages
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
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Longlist - Fiction
An American Marriage: A Novel
by Tayari Jones
- NYT Best Book of the 21st Century
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- A 2018 Oprah Book Club Selection
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- 2019 BCALA Literary Award
Algonquin Books (Feb 06, 2018)
Fiction, Hardcover, 320 pages
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Longlist - Poetry
Monument: Poems New and Selected
by Natasha Trethewey
List Price: $26.00Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Nov 06, 2018)
Poetry, Hardcover, 208 pages
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