2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS FINALISTS ANNOUNCED

Twenty-five Finalists to contend for National Book Awards in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature

New York, NY – The 25 Finalists for the 2024 National Book Awards for Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature were announced today with the New York Times. The five Finalists in each category were selected by a distinguished panel of judges, and were advanced from the Longlists announced in September with The New Yorker.

Across the five categories, one writer and one translator have been previously honored by the National Book Foundation: Leri Price and Samar Yazbek were Finalists in 2021 for Planet of Clay, and, for her translations, Price was Longlisted in 2023 for No One Prayed Over Their Graves and a Finalist in 2019 for Death Is Hard Work, both written by Khaled Khalifa. All of the Finalists in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature are first-time National Book Award honorees. Five of the 25 Finalists are debuts, and ten independent and university publishers are represented.

The 2024 Finalists will read from their work at the National Book Awards Finalist Reading on the evening of Tuesday, November 19 at NYU Skirball, an annual in-person, ticketed event that is open to the public and livestreamed for readers everywhere. The Finalist Reading will be hosted by Brittany Luse, an award-winning journalist, cultural critic, and host of It's Been a Minute from NPR. The Finalist Reading is presented in partnership with the National Book Foundation and the NYU Creative Writing Program, and tickets are available for purchase on NYU Skirball’s website.

On the morning of Tuesday, November 19, the Finalists in Young People’s Literature connect with middle and high school students for Teens Read the 2024 National Book Awards, hosted by National Book Award Winner Jacqueline Woodson. The in-person event, which features readings, Q&A, and book signings, is at Peter Norton Symphony Space in New York City. Teens Read will be livestreamed for students and educators across the country; and the first 25 public school educators to register will receive one set of the five Finalist titles. For more information and to register for the livestream, please visit nationalbook.org/teens-read.

Finalists for Young People’s Literature:

Violet Duncan, Buffalo Dreamer Nancy Paulsen Books / Penguin Random House

Josh Galarza, The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky Henry Holt and Company (BYR) / Macmillan Publishers

Erin Entrada Kelly, The First State of Being Greenwillow Books / HarperCollins Publishers

Shifa Saltagi Safadi, Kareem Between G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House

Angela Shanté, The Unboxing of a Black Girl Page Street Publishing

In Buffalo Dreamer, a story inspired by Violet Duncan’s own family history, 12-year-old Summer eagerly anticipates summer vacation until she begins to have vivid, unnerving dreams about an Indigenous girl attempting to escape a real-life residential school. The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky, Josh Galarza’s debut novel, follows Brett as he grapples with his peers’ scrutiny and judgement after his journal goes viral on social media, and—with the help of unexpected friends—faces his own internalized fatphobia and disordered eating. In Erin Entrada Kelly’s The First State of Being, while Michael Rosario is preparing for the impending Y2K crisis by stockpiling supplies and catastrophizing, his life is forever altered by the arrival of Ridge, a mysterious, disoriented teenage boy from the year 2199. Shifa Saltagi Safadi’s novel-in-verse, Kareem Between, chronicles the story of Kareem, a Syrian American Muslim teen stuck in the middle of cultures, parents, and countries as he courageously forges his own moral compass. Angela Shanté reflects on the personal and the political in her ode to Black girlhood—told in vignettes and poems influenced by the author’s upbringing in New York City, The Unboxing of a Black Girl serves as a reminder to be gentle with your heart and your mind in defiance of a society that insists on boxing you in.

Finalists’ bios are below, and you can find more information on the authors, the National Book Awards, and the 2024 judges at nationalbook.org.

Young People’s Literature Biographies:

Violet Duncan is Plains Cree and Taíno from Kehewin Cree Nation. After becoming a mother of four and seeing the need for Native representation in literature, she wrote three picture books: I am Native, When We Dance, and Let’s Hoop Dance! She is currently the Indigenous Cultural Advisor at the Tempe Center for the Arts, where she aims to create space for a permanent program of Indigenous performance and practice. She lives in Mesa, Arizona.

Longtime Montessori educator Josh Galarza writes fiction and creative nonfiction and is a multidisciplinary visual artist specializing in printmaking and book arts. His research centers around male gender performance, queer issues, body liberation, and Chicano studies. His young adult debut is The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky. Galarza earned his BA in English and BFA in art from the University of Nevada, Reno. He currently lives in Richmond, VA, where he teaches in the English Department at Virginia Commonwealth University while completing an MFA in Creative Writing.

Erin Entrada Kelly was awarded the Newbery Medal for Hello, Universe and a Newbery Honor for We Dream of Space. She is a professor of children’s literature in the graduate fiction and publishing programs at Rosemont College, where she earned her MFA, and is on the faculty at Hamline University. Her debut novel, Blackbird Fly, was a Kirkus Reviews Best Book, a School Library Journal Best Book, an Association for Library Service to 10 Children Notable Book, and an Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature Honor book. She is also the author of The Land of Forgotten Girls, winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, among others.

Shifa Saltagi Safadi is the author of Kareem Between and several picture books, including The Gift of Eid. She has a bachelor’s degree in English Literature, teaches English Language Arts at a local middle school, and reviews Muslim books on her blog, Muslim Mommy Blog. Shifa was born in Syria and immigrated to the US with her parents as a young girl. She lives near Chicago with her husband and four children.

Angela Shanté is an award–winning author and former NYC K-12 teacher by trade. In addition to her writing, she is a multi-hyphened artist who consults on creative, educational, and culturally relevant projects. She lives in CA with her dog, Blue.