US National Book Awards 2025 longlists announced

The US National Book Awards 2025 longlists have been announced; here are the writers of African descent in the running.

The US National Book Awards are literary awards from the Northern American nation’s National Book Foundation, established in 1936. They are conferred on fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature, and young people’s literature. Some of the previous winners have been Les Payne, Tamara Payne, Kacen Callender, Tiya Miles, and Jason Mott. W Paul Coates and Percival Everett won in 2024.

The longlists for 2025 have been announced this week, and the writers of African descent include;

Fiction

Jury: Rumaan Alam (Chair), Debra Magpie Earling, Attica Locke, Elizabeth McCracken, and Cody Morrison.

• Palaver, Bryan Washington, Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers

Young People

Jury: David Bowles (Chair), Cathy Berner, Candice Iloh, Jung Kim, and Maulik Pancholy

• The Corruption of Hollis Brown, K. Ancrum, HarperCollins / HarperCollins Publishers
• The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze, Derrick Barnes, Viking Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House
• A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe, Mahogany L. Browne, Crown Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House
• The Leaving Room, Amber McBride, Feiwel & Friends / Macmillan Publishers
• Truth Is, Hannah V. Sawyerr, Amulet Books / Abrams
• (S)Kin, Ibi Zoboi, Versify / HarperCollins Publishers

Poetry

Jury: Terrance Hayes (Chair), Kate Daniels, H. Melt, Anis Mojgani, and Caridad Moro-Gronlier.

• Death Does Not End at the Sea, Gbenga Adesina, University of Nebraska Press
• Scorched Earth, Tiana Clark, Washington Square Press / Simon & Schuster
• Death of the First Idea, Rickey Laurentiis, Knopf / Penguin Random House
• The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems, Patricia Smith, Scribner / Simon & Schuster

Nonfiction

Jury: Tiya Miles (Chair), Heather Kathleen Moody Hall, Raj Patel, Cristina Rivera Garza, and Eli Saslow

• One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad, Knopf / Penguin Random House
• Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State, Caleb Gayle, Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House

Translated literature

Jury: Stesha Brandon (Chair), Sergio Gutiérrez Negrón, Bill Johnston, Annette K. Joseph-Gabriel, and Karen Tei Yamashita

• Sleep Phase, Mohamed Kheir, Translated from the Arabic by Robin Moger, Two Lines Press

The National Book Foundation, presenter of the National Book Awards, also announced that award-winning writer, editor, publisher, professor, and cultural critic Roxane Gay is the recipient of the 2025 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.

The categories will be narrowed to five finalists on October 7, and winners will be announced at a ceremony in New York, USA, on November 19, 2025.