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
14 Books Honored by the National Book Foundation in 2020
Winner - Nonfiction
The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
by Les Payne and Tamara Payne
List Price: $35.00Liveright Publishing Corporation (Oct 20, 2020)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 640 pages
More Info
Winner - Young People’s Literature
King and the Dragonflies
by Kacen Callender
List Price: $17.99Scholastic Press (Feb 04, 2020)
Fiction, Hardcover, 272 pages
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
More Info
Finalist - Fiction
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
by Deesha Philyaw
West Virginia University Press (Sep 01, 2020)
Fiction, Paperback, 192 pages
More Info
Finalist - Nonfiction
Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory
by Claudio Saunt
W. W. Norton & Company (Mar 24, 2020)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 416 pages
More Info
Finalist - Nonfiction
How to Make a Slave and Other Essays
by Jerald Walker
Mad Creek Books (Nov 02, 2020)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 152 pages
More Info
Finalist - Poetry
Fantasia for the Man in Blue
by Tommye Blount
List Price: $16.95Four Way Books (Mar 02, 2020)
Poetry, Paperback, 152 pages
More Info
Finalist - Young People’s Literature
When Stars Are Scattered
by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed
List Price: $12.99Dial Books (Apr 14, 2020)
Fiction, Paperback, 264 pages
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
More Info
Finalist - Young People’s Literature
Every Body Looking
by Candice Iloh
Dutton Books for Young Readers (Sep 22, 2020)
Fiction, Hardcover, 416 pages
Target Age Group: Young Adult
More Info
Longlist - Fiction
The Vanishing Half
by Brit Bennett
List Price: $27.00Riverhead Books (Jun 02, 2020)
Fiction, Hardcover, 352 pages
More Info
Longlist - Fiction
If I Had Two Wings: Stories
by Randall Kenan
W. W. Norton & Company (Aug 04, 2020)
Fiction, Hardcover, 224 pages
More Info
Longlist - Nonfiction
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
by Isabel Wilkerson
8-time National Bestseller, Adult Nonfiction (Hardcover)
- A 2024 National Bestselling Book – Adult Nonfiction (Hardcover)
- A 2023 National Bestselling Book - Adult Nonfiction (Hardcover)
- Kirkus Prize Finalist/Winner 2020
- 2021 BCALA Literary Award
Random House (Aug 04, 2020)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 496 pages
More Info
Longlist - Nonfiction
Afropessimism
by Frank B. Wilderson III
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 368 pages
More Info
Longlist - Poetry
The Age of Phillis
by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
List Price: $26.95Wesleyan University Press (Mar 03, 2020)
Poetry, Hardcover, 200 pages
More Info
Longlist - Young People’s Literature
Lifting as We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box
by Evette Dionne
List Price: $19.99Viking Books for Young Readers (Apr 21, 2020)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
More Info