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


10 Books Honored by the National Book Foundation in 2017

Winner - Fiction

Finalist - Nonfiction

Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

    List Price: $26.00
    Atria / 37 Ink (Feb 07, 2017)
    Nonfiction, Hardcover, 272 pages
    More Info

    Finalist - Poetry

    In the Language of My Captor
    by Shane McCrae

      List Price: $24.95
      Wesleyan University Press (Feb 07, 2017)
      Poetry, Hardcover, 108 pages
      More Info

      Finalist - Poetry

      Finalist - Young People’s Literature

      Finalist - Young People’s Literature

      Longlist - Fiction

      Longlist - Nonfiction

      Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News
      by Kevin Young

      List Price: $30.00
      Graywolf Press (Nov 14, 2017)
      Nonfiction, Hardcover, 480 pages
      More Info

      Longlist - Young People’s Literature

      Longlist - Young People’s Literature