National Book Award Finalists announced

In the US, the finalists for the 2022 National Book Awards have been announced.

The shortlisted titles are:

Fiction

• The Rabbit Hutch (Tess Gunty, Knopf)
• The Birdcatcher (Gayl Jones, Beacon)
• The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories (Jamil Jan Kochai, Viking)
• All This Could Be Different (Sarah Thankam Mathews, Viking)
• The Town of Babylon (Alejandro Varela, Astra House) 

Nonfiction

• The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining chronic illness (Meghan O’Rourke, Riverhead)
• South to America: A journey below the Mason-Dixon to understand the soul of a nation (Imani Perry, Ecco)
• Breathless: The scientific race to defeat a deadly virus (David Quammen, S&S)
• The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A memoir (Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Doubleday)
• His Name Is George Floyd: One man’s life and the struggle for racial justice (Robert Samuels & Toluse Olorunnipa, Viking)

Poetry

• Look at This Blue (Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Coffee House)
• Punks: New & selected poems (John Keene, The Song Cave)
• Balladz (Sharon Olds, Knopf)
• Best Barbarian (Roger Reeves, Norton)
• The Rupture Tense (Jenny Xie, Graywolf)

Translated Literature

• A New Name: Septology VI-VII (Jon Fosse, trans by Damion Searls, Transit)
• Kibogo (Scholastique Mukasonga, trans by Mark Polizzotti, Archipelago)
• Jawbone (Mónica Ojeda, trans by Sarah Booker, Coffee House)
• Seven Empty Houses (Samanta Schweblin, trans by Megan McDowell, Riverhead)
• Scattered All Over the Earth (Yoko Tawada, trans by Margaret Mitsutani, New Directions)

Young People’s Literature 

• The Ogress and the Orphans (Kelly Barnhill, Algonquin)
• The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School (Sonora Reyes, HarperCollins)
• Victory. Stand!: Raising my fist for justice (Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes & Dawud Anyabwile, Norton Young Readers)
• All My Rage (Sabaa Tahir, Razorbill)
• Maizy Chen’s Last Chance (Lisa Yee, Random House).

The awards are administered by the US National Book Foundation. The winners will be announced on 16 November.

Category: International news