The finalists for the 2026 National Book Awards were revealed on October 6, 2026. Edwidge Danticat, now a three-time finalist, is competing for her novel, Dèy, which tells the story of a woman who witnesses a violent gun attack in a Miami mall. Danticat was previously nominated for her short story collection Krik? Krak! in 1995 and for her non-fiction book Brother, I'm Dying in 2007.
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Other contenders for the fiction prize include Hannah Lillith Assadi with Paradiso 17, Julián Delgado Lopera with Pretend You're Dead and I Carry You, Valeria Luiselli with Beginning Middle End, and Morgan Thomas, who is recognized for her debut novel Mad Eden.
In the nonfiction category, Camonghne Felix is nominated for Let the Poets Govern: A Declaration of Freedom, which combines memoir and advocacy. She faces competition from Colin Asher, Sara Nović, Joseph Osmundson, and Abdelrahman ElGendy, who wrote Huna, a memoir about his time in Egyptian prison.
Winners of the National Book Awards will be announced on November 18, 2026.
The complete list of finalists includes:
**Fiction**
Hannah Lillith Assadi, Paradiso 17
Edwidge Danticat, Dèy
Julián Delgado Lopera, Pretend You're Dead and I Carry You
Valeria Luiselli, Beginning Middle End
Morgan Thomas, Mad Eden
**Nonfiction**
Colin Asher, The Midnight Special: The Secret Prison History of American Music
Abdelrahman ElGendy, Huna: A Memoir of Revolution, Prison, and Becoming
Camonghne Felix, Let the Poets Govern: A Declaration of Freedom
Sara Nović, Mother Tongue
Joseph Osmundson, Spawning Season: An Experiment in Queer Parenthood
**Poetry**
Victoria Chang, Tree of Knowledge
Carolina Ebeid, Hide
Brenda Hillman, Still House in the Desert: An eco-contemplation
Fady Joudah, Exhibit G: Poems, Essays, and Photographs of Gaza
Susan Stewart, Bramble
**Translated Literature**
Karl Ove Knausgaard, The School of Night, translated from Norwegian by Martin Aitken
Vicente Luis Mora, Centroeuropa, translated from Spanish by Rahul Bery
Intan Paramaditha, Night of a Thousand Hells, translated from Indonesian by Stephen J. Epstein and Tiffany Tsao
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Pure Men, translated from French by Lara Vergnaud
Samar Yazbek, Your Presence Is a Danger to Your Life: Voices of Survival and Witness in Gaza, translated from Arabic by Leri Price
**Young People's Literature**
Elana K. Arnold, Holloway
Tae Keller, When Tomorrow Burns
Keala Kendall, That Which Feeds Us: A Hawaiian Gothic
David Levithan and Gabriel Duckels, The Fight of Our Lives: AIDS in America
Julian Randall, Shook
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