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


14 Books Honored by the National Book Foundation in 2020

Winner - Nonfiction

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
by Les Payne and Tamara Payne

List Price: $35.00
Liveright Publishing Corporation (Oct 20, 2020)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 640 pages
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Winner - Young People’s Literature

Finalist - Fiction

Finalist - Nonfiction

Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory
by Claudio Saunt

    List Price: $26.95
    W. W. Norton & Company (Mar 24, 2020)
    Nonfiction, Hardcover, 416 pages
    More Info

    Finalist - Nonfiction

    How to Make a Slave and Other Essays
    by Jerald Walker

      List Price: $19.95
      Mad Creek Books (Nov 02, 2020)
      Nonfiction, Paperback, 152 pages
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      Finalist - Poetry

      Fantasia for the Man in Blue
      by Tommye Blount

      List Price: $16.95
      Four Way Books (Mar 02, 2020)
      Poetry, Paperback, 152 pages
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      Finalist - Young People’s Literature

      Finalist - Young People’s Literature

      Longlist - Fiction

      Longlist - Fiction

      If I Had Two Wings: Stories
      by Randall Kenan

        List Price: $25.95
        W. W. Norton & Company (Aug 04, 2020)
        Fiction, Hardcover, 224 pages
        More Info

        Longlist - Nonfiction

        Longlist - Nonfiction

        Longlist - Poetry

        Longlist - Young People’s Literature