The 2018 National Book Award Longlist!

Ever the fans of the dramatic, the National Book Awards are drip-feeding us their nominations for the best books of the year.  The nominations for Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature have all been announced, and we’re looking forward to bringing you the announcement of the Fiction long list tomorrow, after the announcement is made around 10:00am EST.

Via BuzzFeed

The nominations this year reflect the surge of new talent and diverse voices that we have been fortunate enough to enjoy in our reading this year.  Among the poetry long list, only one author has previously won (Terrance Hayes; Pulitzer-Prize winner Rae Armantrout was nominated in 2009).

This year also marks the first award for translated literature, a sign that the award itself is hearing the multitude of voices telling stories around us.  Not only are the authors themselves telling stories from a range of different locations and in a number of different languages, but seven of the titles were also put out by independent presses, highlighting how publishing itself is changing around us, as well.  It’s a heady time to be a reader, beloved patrons, and we are 100% on board for all the fun!

So here, without further ado, are the current National Book Award long lists.  We look forward to adding to this list in the coming days, and seeing how the awards program progresses to the final announcement of the National Book Awards on November 14!

A note: If you click the link in the authors’ names, you will be taken to the National Book Award website for that writer.  If you are looking to locate the books in our library catalog, please click on the book’s title where a link is available.

 

Poetry:

http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2018.html#.W5qlR5NKiu4

 

Translated Literature:

http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2018.html#.W5qlR5NKiu4

Young People’s Literature

http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2018.html#.W5qlR5NKiu4

Congratulations to all the long-listed authors and their sensational books!