Sweater, on. Tea, steeping. Blanket, splayed. As we enter the cozy vibes of autumn, all that's missing from this picture is a good book. If you need help picking one, the National Book Foundation just announced its finalists for this year's awards.
A handful of the short-listed writers named have been honored previously by the National Book Awards, including newly minted MacArthur "genius" Hanif Abdurraqib, three-time finalist Lauren Groff and young-adult book author Kekla Magoon.
Alternately, there are writers on the list whose debut works are being honored, such as Robert Jones Jr. His book, The Prophets, is a love story about two enslaved men on a plantation.
The winners will be announced at a virtual ceremony on Nov. 17. Winners of a National Book Award receive $10,000. The full list is below.
Fiction
Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land
Lauren Groff, Matrix
Laird Hunt, Zorrie
Robert Jones, Jr., The Prophets
Jason Mott, Hell of a Book
Nonfiction
Hanif Abdurraqib, A Little Devil in America: Notes In Praise of Black Performance
Lucas Bessire, Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains
Grace M. Cho, Tastes Like War: A Memoir
Nicole Eustace, Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America
Tiya Miles, All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family's Keepsake
Poetry
Desiree C. Bailey, What Noise Against the Cane
Martín Espada, Floaters
Douglas Kearny, Sho
Hoa Nguyen, A Thousand times You Lose Your Treasure
Jackie Wang, The Sunflower Cast a Spell to Save Us from the Void
Translated Literature
Elisa Shua Dusapin, Winter in Sokcho. Translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins
Ge Fei, Peach Blossom Paradise. Translated by Canaan Morse
Nona Fernández, The Twilight Zone. Translated by Natasha Wimmer
Benjamín Labatut, When We Cease to Understand the World. Translated by Adrian Nathan West
Samar Yazbek, Planet of Clay. Translated by Leri Price
Young People's Literature
Shing Yin Khor, The Legend of Auntie Po
Malinda Lo, Last Night at the Telegraph Club
Kyle Lukoff, Too Bright to See
Kekla Magoon, Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party's Promise to the People
Amber McBride, Me (Moth)
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