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
17 Books Honored by the National Book Foundation in 2021
Winner - Fiction
Hell of a Book
by Jason Mott
Dutton (Aug 10, 2021)
Fiction, Hardcover, 336 pages
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Winner - Nonfiction
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
by Tiya Miles
List Price: $28.00Random House (Jun 08, 2021)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 416 pages
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Winner - Poetry
Playlist for the Apocalypse: Poems
by Rita Dove
List Price: $15.95W. W. Norton & Company (Mar 28, 2023)
Poetry, Paperback, 128 pages
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Finalist - Fiction
The Prophets
by Robert Jones, Jr.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons (Jan 05, 2021)
Fiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
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Finalist - Nonfiction
A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance
by Hanif Abdurraqib
List Price: $27.00Random House (Mar 30, 2021)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 272 pages
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Finalist - Poetry
What Noise Against the Cane
by Desiree C. Bailey
Yale University Press (Apr 13, 2021)
Poetry, Paperback, 96 pages
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Finalist - Poetry
Sho
by Douglas Kearney
List Price: $18.00Wave Books (Apr 06, 2021)
Poetry, Paperback, 104 pages
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Finalist - Young People’s Literature
Me (Moth)
by Amber McBride
List Price: $18.99Feiwel & Friends (Aug 17, 2021)
Fiction, Hardcover, 256 pages
Target Age Group: Young Adult
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Finalist - Young People’s Literature
Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People
by Kekla Magoon
List Price: $24.99Candlewick Press (Nov 23, 2021)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Young Adult
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Longlist - Fiction
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
List Price: $28.99Harper (Aug 24, 2021)
Fiction, Hardcover, 816 pages
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Longlist - Nonfiction
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
by Clint Smith
List Price: $29.00Little, Brown and Company (Jun 01, 2021)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 352 pages
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Longlist - Nonfiction
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
by Heather McGhee
One World (Feb 16, 2021)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 448 pages
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Longlist - Nonfiction
The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice
by Scott Ellsworth
Dutton (May 18, 2021)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 336 pages
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Longlist - Nonfiction
The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship
by Deborah Willis
New York University Press (Jan 26, 2021)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 256 pages
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Longlist - Translated Literature
Waiting for the Waters to Rise
by Maryse Conde
World Editions (Aug 05, 2021)
Fiction, Paperback, 368 pages
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Longlist - Young People’s Literature
Home Is Not a Country
by Safia Elhillo
List Price: $17.99Make Me a World (Mar 02, 2021)
Fiction, Hardcover, 224 pages
Target Age Group: Young Adult
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Longlist - Young People’s Literature
Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre
by Carole Boston Weatherford, Illustrated by Floyd Cooper
List Price: $17.99Carolrhoda Books (Feb 02, 2021)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 32 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
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