National Book Awards 2021 shortlists announced

In the US, the finalists for the 2021 National Book Awards have been announced.

The shortlisted titles are:

Fiction

• Cloud Cuckoo Land (Anthony Doerr, Fourth Estate)
• Matrix (Lauren Groff, William Heinemann)
• Zorrie (Laird Hunt, Bloomsbury)
• The Prophets (Robert Jones Jr, riverrun)
• Hell of a Book (Jason Mott, Trapeze)

Nonfiction

• A Little Devil in America: Notes in praise of black performance (Hanif Abdurraqib, Allen Lane)
• Running Out: In search of water on the high plains (Lucas Bessire, Princeton University Press)
• Tastes Like War: A memoir (Grace M Cho, Feminist Press)
• Covered with Night: A story of murder and Indigenous justice in early America (Nicole Eustace, Liveright)
• All That She Carried: The journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black family keepsake (Tiya Miles, Random House)

Poetry

• What Noise Against the Cane (Desiree C Bailey, Yale University Press)
• Floaters (Martín Espada, W W Norton)
• Sho (Douglas Kearney, Wave Books)
• A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure (Hoa Nguyen, Wave Books)
• The Sunflower Cast A Spell To Save Us From The Void (Jackie Wang, Nightboat Books)

Translated Literature

• Winter in Sokcho (Elisa Shua Dusapin, trans by Aneesa Abbas Higgins, Scribe)
• Peach Blossom Paradise (Ge Fei, trans by Canaan Morse, New York Review Books)
• The Twilight Zone (Nona Fernández, trans by Natasha Wimmer, Graywolf Press)
• When We Cease to Understand the World (Benjamín Labatut, trans by Adrian Nathan West, Pushkin)
• Planet of Clay (Samar Yazbek, trans by Leri Price, World Editions)

Young People’s Literature

• The Legend of Auntie Po (Shing Yin Khor, Kokila)
• Last Night at the Telegraph Club (Malinda Lo, Hodder Paperbacks)
• Too Bright to See (Kyle Lukoff, Dial Books)
• Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s promise to the people (Kekla Magoon, Walker Books)
• Me (Moth) (Amber McBride, Feiwel and Friends).

The awards are administered by the US National Book Foundation. The winners will be announced at an online event on 17 November 2021.

Category: International news