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
8 Books Honored by the National Book Foundation in 2024
Winner - Fiction
James: A Novel
by Percival Everett
8-time National Bestseller, Adult Fiction (Hardcover)
- A 2024 National Bestselling Book – Adult Fiction (Hardcover)
- Best Audiobook 2025: Best Literary Fiction & Classics
- 3 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- Kirkus Prize Finalist/Winner 2024
- 2025 BCALA Literary Award
Doubleday Books (Mar 19, 2024)
Fiction, Hardcover, 320 pages
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Finalist - Fiction
Ghostroots: Stories
by ’Pemi Aguda
W. W. Norton & Company (May 07, 2024)
Fiction, Hardcover, 224 pages
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Finalist - Translated Literature
The Villain’s Dance
by Fiston Mwanza Mujila
Deep Vellum Publishing (Mar 12, 2024)
Fiction, Paperback, 272 pages
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Finalist - Young People’s Literature
The Unboxing of a Black Girl
by Angela Shante
Page Street YA (May 07, 2024)
Poetry, Hardcover, 160 pages
Target Age Group: Young Adult
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Longlist - Nonfiction
There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension
by Hanif Abdurraqib
12-time National Bestseller, Adult Nonfiction (Hardcover)
- A 2024 National Bestselling Book – Adult Nonfiction (Hardcover)
- Best Audiobook 2025: Nonfiction
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
Random House (Mar 26, 2024)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 352 pages
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Longlist - Poetry
Silver: Poems
by Rowan Ricardo Phillips
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Mar 05, 2024)
Poetry, Hardcover, 80 pages
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Longlist - Poetry
Spectral Evidence: Poems
by Gregory Pardlo
Alfred A. Knopf (Jan 30, 2024)
Poetry, Hardcover, 128 pages
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Longlist - Young People’s Literature
Mid-Air
by Alicia D. Williams, Illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff
Atheneum (Apr 03, 2024)
Fiction, Hardcover, 336 pages
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
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