National Book Award: Winners, Finalists and Longlisted Titles

National Book Award Medals

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:  2024202320172016201520142013


8 Books Honored by the National Book Foundation in 2024

Winner - Fiction

Finalist - Fiction

Ghostroots: Stories
by ’Pemi Aguda

    List Price: $26.99
    W. W. Norton & Company (May 07, 2024)
    Fiction, Hardcover, 224 pages
    More Info

    Finalist - Translated Literature

    Finalist - Young People’s Literature

    The Unboxing of a Black Girl
    by Angela Shante

      List Price: $18.99
      Page Street YA (May 07, 2024)
      Poetry, Hardcover, 160 pages
      Target Age Group: Young Adult
      More Info

      Longlist - Nonfiction

      Longlist - Poetry

      Longlist - Poetry

      Spectral Evidence: Poems
      by Gregory Pardlo

        List Price: $28.00
        Alfred A. Knopf (Jan 30, 2024)
        Poetry, Hardcover, 128 pages
        More Info

        Longlist - Young People’s Literature

        Mid-Air
        by Alicia D. Williams, Illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff

          List Price: $17.99
          Atheneum (Apr 03, 2024)
          Fiction, Hardcover, 336 pages
          Target Age Group: Middle Grade
          More Info