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


15 Books Honored by the National Book Foundation in 2019

Winner - Nonfiction

Finalist - Fiction

Black Leopard, Red Wolf
by Marlon James

    List Price: $30.00
    Riverhead Books (Feb 05, 2019)
    Fiction, Hardcover, 640 pages
    More Info

    Finalist - Fiction

    Finalist - Nonfiction

    Finalist - Nonfiction

    Thick: And Other Essays
    by Tressie McMillan Cottom

      List Price: $24.99
      The New Press (Jan 08, 2019)
      Nonfiction, Hardcover, 224 pages
      More Info

      Finalist - Poetry

      Finalist - Poetry

      Finalist - Translated Literature

      The Barefoot Woman
      by Scholastique Mukasonga

        List Price: $16.00
        Archipelago (Dec 18, 2018)
        Fiction, Paperback, 152 pages
        More Info

        Finalist - Young People’s Literature

        Finalist - Young People’s Literature

        Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks
        by Jason Reynolds

        List Price: $17.99
        Atheneum (Oct 08, 2019)
        Fiction, Paperback, 208 pages
        Target Age Group: Young Adult
        More Info

        Longlist - Fiction

        Longlist - Nonfiction

        Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership
        by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

          List Price: $30.00
          The University of North Carolina Press (Oct 21, 2019)
          Nonfiction, Hardcover, 368 pages
          More Info

          Longlist - Nonfiction

          Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest
          by Hanif Abdurraqib

          List Price: $16.95
          University of Texas Press (Feb 01, 2019)
          Nonfiction, Paperback, 216 pages
          More Info

          Longlist - Poetry

          Build Yourself a Boat
          by Camonghne Felix

            List Price: $16.00
            Haymarket Books (Apr 23, 2019)
            Poetry, Paperback, 72 pages
            More Info

            Longlist - Young People’s Literature