National Book Award: Winners, Finalists, and Longlisted Titles

An elegant meditation on the complexities of the American South and thus of America by an esteemed daughter of the South and one of the great intellectuals of our time. An inspiration. Isabel Wilkerson

An essential, surprising journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American South and a revelatory argument for why you must understand the South in order to understand America

We all think we know the South. Even those who have never lived there can rattle off a list of signifiers: the Civil War, Gone with the Wind, the Ku Klux Klan, plantations, football, Jim Crow, slavery. But the idiosyncrasies, dispositions, and habits of the region are stranger and more complex than much of the country tends to acknowledge. In South to America, Imani Perry shows that the meaning of American is inextricably linked with the South, and that our understanding of its history and culture is the key to understanding the nation as a whole.

This is the story of a Black woman and native Alabaman returning to the region she has always called home and considering it with fresh eyes. Her journey is full of detours, deep dives, and surprising encounters with places and people. She renders Southerners from all walks of life with sensitivity and honesty, sharing her thoughts about a troubling history and the ritual humiliations and joys that characterize so much of Southern life.

Weaving together stories of immigrant communities, contemporary artists, exploitative opportunists, enslaved peoples, unsung heroes, her own ancestors, and her lived experiences, Imani Perry crafts a tapestry unlike any other. With uncommon insight and breathtaking clarity, South to America offers an assertion that if we want to build a more humane future for the United States, we must center our concern below the Mason-Dixon Line.

South to America marks time like Beloved did. Similarly, we will talk not solely of books about the south, but books generally as before or after South to America. I have known and loved the South for four decades and Imani Perry has shown me that there is so much more in our region s fleshy folds to know, explore and love. It is simply the most finely crafted and rigorously conceived book about our region, and nation, I have ever read. Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy

In the tradition of native daughters and sons returning home and cataloging the journey, Imani Perry undertakes an exploration of and meditation on the many Souths that make up the American southland. Part pilgrimage, part elegy and clarion call, South to America is wide-ranging, associative and seamlessly woven an ambitious sweep of history, culture, language. Perry s intellect is capacious. Moving deftly between registers, she proves to be an insightful and compelling guide.&rdqquo; Natasha Trethewey, author of Memorial Drive

A landmark collection of poetry by acclaimed fiction writer, translator, and MacArthur Fellow John Keene, PUNKS: NEW & SELECTED POEMS is a generous treasury in seven sections that spans decades and includes previously unpublished and brand new work. With depth and breadth, PUNKS weaves together historic narratives of loss, lust, and love. The many voices that emerge in these poems from historic Black personalities, both familial and famous, to the poet s friends and lovers in gay bars and bedrooms form a cast of characters capable of addressing desire, oppression, AIDS, and grief through sorrowful songs that we sing as hard as we live. At home in countless poetic forms, PUNKS reconfirms John Keene as one of the most important voices in contemporary poetry.

John Keene s PUNKS is utterly brilliant. The range, vision, depth and humanity he brings to the page are as galactic as Banneker s astral wanderings, as crisp as the chordal cutting of a searching horn, as courageous and small as a nose wide open. Keene s masterfully inventive inquiry of self and history is queered, Blackened, and joyously thick with multitudes of voice and valence. Amen to this exploration Tyehimba Jess, Winner 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Poetry. African & African American Studies. LGBTQIA Studies.

Publishers Weekly Top 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2022

Gayl Jones s work represents a watershed in American literature.
Imani Perry

Legendary writer Gayl Jones returns with a stunning new novel about Black American artists in exile

Gayl Jones, the novelist Toni Morrison discovered decades ago and Tayari Jones recently called her favorite writer, has been described as one of the great literary writers of the 20th century. Now, for the first time in over 20 years, Jones is publishing again. In the wake of her long-awaited fifth novel, Palmares, The Birdcatcher is another singular achievement, a return to the circles of her National Book Award finalist, The Healing.

Set primarily on the island of Ibiza, the story is narrated by the writer Amanda Wordlaw, whose closest friend, a gifted sculptor named Catherine Shuger, is repeatedly institutionalized for trying to kill a husband who never leaves her. The three form a quirky triangle on the white-washed island.

A study in Black women s creative expression, and the intensity of their relationships, this work from Jones shows off her range and insight into the vicissitudes of all human nature - rewarding longtime fans and bringing her talent to a new generation of readers.

Since we know George Floyd s death with tragic clarity, we must know Floyd s America and life with tragic clarity. Essential for our times. Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist

A much-needed portrait of the life, times, and martyrdom of George Floyd, a chronicle of the racial awakening sparked by his brutal and untimely death, and an essential work of history I hope everyone will read. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., author of The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song

A landmark biography by two prizewinning Washington Post reporters that reveals how systemic racism shaped George Floyd s life and legacy from his family s roots in the tobacco fields of North Carolina, to ongoing inequality in housing, education, health care, criminal justice, and policing telling the story of how one man s tragic experience brought about a global movement for change.

The events of that day are now tragically familiar: on May 25, 2020, George Floyd became the latest Black person to die at the hands of the police, murdered outside of a Minneapolis convenience store by white officer Derek Chauvin. The video recording of his death set off the largest protest movement in the history of the United States, awakening millions to the pervasiveness of racial injustice. But long before his face was painted onto countless murals and his name became synonymous with civil rights, Floyd was a father, partner, athlete, and friend who constantly strove for a better life.

His Name Is George Floyd tells the story of a beloved figure from Houston s housing projects as he faced the stifling systemic pressures that come with being a Black man in America. Placing his narrative within the context of the country s enduring legacy of institutional racism, this deeply reported account examines Floyd s family roots in slavery and sharecropping, the segregation of his schools, the overpolicing of his community amid a wave of mass incarceration, and the callous disregard toward his struggle with addiction putting today s inequality into uniquely human terms. Drawing upon hundreds of interviews with Floyd s closest friends and family, his elementary school teachers and varsity coaches, civil rights icons, and those in the highest seats of political power, Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa offer a poignant and moving exploration of George Floyd s America, revealing how a man who simply wanted to breathe ended up touching the world.

Longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award for Poetry
Longlisted for the 2023 PEN Open Book Award
Finalist for the Poetry Society of America s Norma Farber First Book Award

Outstanding the poetry in these pages is intelligent, lyrical, as invested in the past as the present and future with witty nods to pop culture. Roxane Gay, author of Hunger

I ve never read anything like it. Truly a sublime experience. Jason Reynolds, author of Ain t Burned All the Bright

A groundbreaking collection about Afropioneerism past and present from Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and New York Times bestselling author Rio Cortez

From a visionary writer praised for her captivating work on Black history and experience comes a poetry collection exploring personal, political, and artistic frontiers, journeying from her family s history as Afropioneers in the American West to shimmering glimpses of transcendent, liberated futures.

In poems that range from wry, tongue-in-cheek observations about contemporary life to more nuanced meditations on her ancestors some of the earliest Black pioneers to settle in the western United States after Reconstruction Golden Ax invites readers to re-imagine the West, Black womanhood, and the legacies that shape and sustain the pursuit of freedom.

Longlisted for the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection

A New York Times Notable Book

In his brilliant, expansive second volume, Whiting Award winning poet Roger Reeves probes the apocalypses and raptures of humanity climate change, anti-Black racism, familial and erotic love, ecstasy and loss.

The poems in Best Barbarian roam across the literary and social landscape, from Beowulf s Grendel to the jazz musician Alice Coltrane, from reckoning with immigration at the U.S. Mexico border to thinking through the fraught beauty of the moon on a summer night after the police have killed a Black man.

Daring and formally elegant, Best Barbarian asks the reader: Who has not been an entryway shuddering in the wind / Of another s want, a rose nailed to some dark longing and bled? Reeves extends his inquiry into the work of writers who have come before, conversing with and sometimes contradicting Walt Whitman, James Baldwin, Sappho, Dante, and Aimé Césaire, among others. Expanding the tradition of poetry to reach from Gilgamesh and the Aeneid to Drake and Beyoncé, Reeves adds his voice to a long song that seeks to address itself only to freedom.

Best Barbarian asks the reader to stay close as it plunges into catastrophe and finds surprising moments of joy and intimacy. This fearless, musical, and oracular collection announces Roger Reeves as an essential voice in American poetry.

A groundbreaking and timely graphic memoir from one of the most iconic figures in American sports and a tribute to his fight for civil rights.

On October 16, 1968, during the medal ceremony at the Mexico City Olympics, Tommie Smith, the gold medal winner in the 200-meter sprint, and John Carlos, the bronze medal winner, stood on the podium in black socks and raised their black-gloved fists to protest racial injustice inflicted upon African Americans. Both men were forced to leave the Olympics, received death threats, and faced ostracism and continuing economic hardships.

In his first-ever memoir for young readers, Tommie Smith looks back on his childhood growing up in rural Texas through to his stellar athletic career, culminating in his historic victory and Olympic podium protest. Cowritten with Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Author Honor recipient Derrick Barnes and illustrated with bold and muscular artwork from Emmy Award winning illustrator Dawud Anyabwile, Victory. Stand! paints a stirring portrait of an iconic moment in Olympic history that still resonates today.

secrets, mystery infused in black magic
that enters bodies in forms of music, art/ poetry imbuing language with sovereignty
in blood spooling back through violent centuries

The version of the great poem Avalanche (number 3) that appears here is different from the version of the same poem he published nearly 25 years ago in exactly the same way that a jazz artist picks up his horn to play the same song a little differently every time.

Troupe is a generous and gregarious poet in this giant offering that includes many new poems, as well as a selection chosen from across his eleven previously published volumes. What s remarkable is the constancy, the energy, and how he s always looking right at you in the here and now, and at the same time sees something over your shoulder that others don t see yet, maybe a distant storm gathering over the waters, something we re going to need to rise up and face soon enough.

Combines wonderful characters and history to create a story that will make you want to dive right in! Jerry Craft, author of the Newbery Medal-winning New Kid

A splashy, contemporary middle-grade graphic novel from bestselling comics creator Johnnie Christmas!

Bree can t wait for her first day at her new middle school, Enith Brigitha, home to the Mighty Manatees until she s stuck with the only elective that fits her schedule, the dreaded Swim 101. The thought of swimming makes Bree more than a little queasy, yet she s forced to dive headfirst into one of her greatest fears. Lucky for her, Etta, an elderly occupant of her apartment building and former swim team captain, is willing to help.

With Etta s training and a lot of hard work, Bree suddenly finds her swim-crazed community counting on her to turn the school s failing team around. But that s easier said than done, especially when their rival, the prestigious Holyoke Prep, has everything they need to leave the Mighty Manatees in their wake.

Can Bree defy the odds and guide her team to a state championship, or have the Manatees swum their last lap for good?

From the beloved author of President of the Whole Fifth Grade, a story about a young Black girl who summons the courage to fight against a discriminatory dress code and stand up for herself.

Lotus Bloom just wants to express herself with her violin, her retro style, and her peaceful vibe, not to mention her fabulous hair.

This school year, Lotus is taking her talent and spirit to the seventh grade at a new school of the arts. The one where she just might get to play under the famous maestro, a violin virtuoso and conductor of the orchestra. But Lotus s best friend, Rebel, thinks Lotus should stay at their school. Why should this fancy new school get all the funding and pull the brightest kids out? Rebel wants Lotus to help her protest, but Lotus isn t sure. If she s going to be in the spotlight, she d rather it be for her music.

Then, when boys throw paper wads and airplanes into Lotus s afro, Lotus finds herself in trouble for a dress code violation. Lotus must choose should she stay quiet and risk her beloved hair, or put aside her peaceful vibe and risk everything to fight back?

Inspired by real stories of Black girls fighting dress codes that discriminate against their hair and culture, beloved author Sherri Winston introduces a memorable character who finds her way to speak up for what s right, no matter what it takes.