Meet the finalists for the 2021 National Book Awards

Introducing the finalists for the 2021 National Book Awards!

These books are each still under consideration for their genre's grand prize — praise and $10,000, to be handed out at a virtual ceremony November 17.

Fiction

• Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr

• Matrix, by Lauren Groff

• Zorrie, by Laird Hunt

• The Prophets, by Robert Jones, Jr.

• Hell of a Book, by Jason Mott

Nonfiction 

• A Little Devil In America: In Praise of Black Performance, by Hanif Abdurraqib

• Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains, by Lucas Bessire

• Tastes Like War: A Memoir, by Grace M. Cho

• Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America, by Nicole Eustace

• All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake, by Tiya Miles

Poetry 

• What Noise Against the Cane, by Desiree C. Bailey

• Floaters, by Martín Espada

• Sho, by Douglas Kearney

• A Thousand times You Lose Your Treasure, by Hoa Nguyen

• The Sunflower Cast A Spell To Save Us From The Void, by Jackie Wang

Translated literature 

• Winter in Sokcho, written by Elisa Shua Dusapin and translated from the French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins

• Peach Blossom Paradise, written by Ge Fei and translated from the Chinese by Canaan Morse

• The Twilight Zone, written by Nona Fernández and translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer

• When We Cease to Understand the World, written by Benjamín Labatut and translated from the Spanish by Adrian Nathan West

• Planet of Clay, written by Samar Yazbek and translated from the Arabic by Leri Price

Young people's literature 

• The Legend of Auntie Po
, by Shing Yin Khor

• Last Night at the Telegraph Club
, by Malinda Lo

• Too Bright to See
, by Kyle Lukoff

• Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People
, by Kekla Magoon

• Me (Moth)
, by Amber McBride