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:  2024 – 2023 – 2017 – 2016 – 2015 – 2014 – 2013


9 Books Honored by the National Book Foundation in 2015

Winner - Nonfiction

Click for a larger image of Between The World And Me

Between The World And Me
by Ta-Nehisi Coates

List Price: $26.00
Spiegel & Grau (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
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Read Our Review of Between The World And Me


Winner - Poetry

Click for a larger image of Voyage of the Sable Venus: and Other Poems

Voyage of the Sable Venus: and Other Poems
by Robin Coste Lewis

List Price: $26.00
Knopf (Sep 29, 2015)
Poetry, Hardcover, 160 pages
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Finalist - Fiction

Click for a larger image of The Turner House

The Turner House
by Angela Flournoy

List Price: $23.00
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Apr 14, 2015)
Fiction, Hardcover, 352 pages
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Finalist - Nonfiction

Click for a larger image of Ordinary Light: A Memoir

Ordinary Light: A Memoir
by Tracy K. Smith

List Price: $25.95
Knopf (Mar 31, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 368 pages
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Finalist - Poetry

Click for a larger image of How to Be Drawn

How to Be Drawn
by Terrance Hayes

List Price: $20.00
William Morrow (Mar 31, 2015)
Poetry, Paperback, 112 pages
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Finalist - Poetry

Click for a larger image of Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (Pitt Poetry Series)

Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (Pitt Poetry Series)
by Ross Gay

List Price: $15.95
University of Pittsburgh Press (Jan 07, 2015)
Poetry, Paperback, 112 pages
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Longlist - Fiction

Click for a larger image of Welcome to Braggsville: A Novel

Welcome to Braggsville: A Novel
by T. Geronimo Johnson

List Price: $25.99
Penguin Books (Feb 17, 2015)
Fiction, Hardcover, 384 pages
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Longlist - Poetry

Click for a larger image of Heaven: Poems

Heaven: Poems
by Rowan Ricardo Phillips

    List Price: $24.00
    Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Jun 16, 2015)
    Poetry, Hardcover, 80 pages
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    Longlist - Young People’s Literature

    Click for a larger image of X: A Novel

    X: A Novel
    by Ilyasah Shabazz, Illustrated by Kekla Magoon

    List Price: $16.99
    Candlewick Press (Jan 06, 2015)
    Fiction, Hardcover, 384 pages
    Target Age Group: Young Adult
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