The finalists for this year’s National Book Awards have been announced. Since 1950, the National Book Awards have been celebrating the best writing in America.
2021 Finalists for Fiction
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Matrix by Lauren Groff
Zorrie by Laird Hunt
The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.
Hell of a Book by Jason Mott
2021 Finalists for Nonfiction
A Little Devil in America: Notes In Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib
Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains by Lucas Bessire
Tastes Like War: A Memoir by Grace M. Cho
Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America by Nicole Eustace
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family’s Keepsake by Tiya Miles
2021 Finalists for Translated Literature
Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin (translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins)
Peach Blossom Paradise by Ge Fei (translated by Canaan Morse)
The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernández (translated by Natasha Wimmer)
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut (translated by Adrian Nathan West)
Planet of Clay by Samar Yazbek (translated by Leri Price)
2021 Finalists for Young People’s Literature
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
Me (Moth) by Amber McBride
2021 Finalists for Poetry
What Noise Against the Cane by Desiree C. Bailey
Floaters by Martín Espada
Sho by Douglas Kearny
A Thousand times You Lose Your Treasure by Hoa Nguyen
The Sunflower Cast a Spell to Save Us from the Void by Jackie Wang
