Every year, The National Book Foundation teams up with The New School to present readings by each of the National Book Awards Finalists.
(Finalists will not appear in this order)
Fiction Finalists:
• Rumaan Alam, Leave the World Behind
• Lydia Millet, A Children’s Bible
• Deesha Philyaw, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
• Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain
• Charles Yu, Interior Chinatown
Nonfiction Finalists:
• Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, The Undocumented Americans
• Les Payne and Tamara Payne, The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
• Claudio Saunt, Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory
• Jenn Shapland, My Autobiography of Carson McCullers
• Jerald Walker, How to Make a Slave and Other Essays
Poetry Finalists:
• Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, A Treatise on Stars
• Tommye Blount, Fantasia for the Man in Blue
• Don Mee Choi, DMZ Colony
• Anthony Cody, Borderland Apocrypha
• Natalie Diaz, Postcolonial Love Poem
Young People’s Literature finalists:
• Kacen Callender, King and the Dragonflies
• Traci Chee, We Are Not Free
• Candice Iloh, Every Body Looking
• Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed, When Stars Are Scattered
• Gavriel Savit, The Way Back
Translated Literature Finalists:
• Anja Kampmann, High as the Waters Rise
• Jonas Hassen Khemiri, The Family Clause
• Yu Miri, Tokyo Ueno Station
• Pilar Quintana, The Bitch
• Adania Shibli, Minor Detail
The National Book Awards were established in 1950 to celebrate the best writing in America. Since 1989, they have been overseen by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to celebrate the best literature in America, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in American culture.
Although other categories have been recognized in the past, the Awards currently honors the best Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature published each year.
Presented by the Creative Writing Program at the Schools of Public Engagement.
The New School offered the first academic creative writing workshop in 1931 and pioneered a new philosophy of education. The idea: students would make their own lives and their own stories part of their education. Today, The New School continues to celebrate and cultivate daring and diverse new voices through its Creative Writing program. The value of this approach is reflected in the publications and achievements of our MFA Creative Writing graduates and faculty.
Visit New School Writing, the blog of the MFA Creative Writing Program, for interviews, profiles, and a digital bookshelf featuring the New School writing community.
Discover more Creative Writing Program events here.
Committed to amplifying diverse voices, The New School offers more than a thousand public programs and events each year, providing fresh perspectives and unique learning opportunities. These lectures, exhibitions, concerts, and performances feature prominent and emerging artists, activists, and thought leaders.
To receive updates about public programs and events at The New School, subscribe to our mailing list. Visit our Livestream and YouTube channels to watch select events live and recorded.
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