Meet Your 2022 National Book Award Finalists

Today, the lives of twenty-five writers changed forever. The National Book Foundation has announced the finalists for the National Book Awards, the year’s biggest night in books. Selected from a crowded field of 1,772 submissions, these twenty-five finalists are a thrilling blend of familiar favorites and rising stars. Six of the finalists have been recognized by the National Book Foundation before; Gayl Jones, Scholastique Mukasonga, and Sharon Olds are all previous finalists, while David Quammen is a previous longlister, and Yoko Tawada and Margaret Mitsutani are previous winners. Meanwhile, another six of the finalists are debut writers. Some of these finalists are also Esquire favorites; Meghan O’Rourke’s The Invisible Kingdom was our March 2022 Esquire Book Club pick, while Gayl Jones, Imani Perry, and Sharon Olds have all appeared on our seasonal and genre-specific lists of best books.

We’ll know who the winners are on November 16, when the National Book Foundation hosts its usual star-studded gala in downtown Manhattan (the ceremony will also be broadcasted live online for readers around the world). That ceremony will also see Neil Gaiman present the the Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Award (the National Book Awards’ lifetime achievement prize) to Art Spiegelman, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus, which tells of his parents’ survival as Polish Jews during the Holocaust.

Below, you’ll find the full list of finalists in all five categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature, and young people’s literature. Stick with us for more coverage—we’ll be reporting from the ceremony in November.

Fiction

Tess Gunty, The Rabbit Hutch

Gayl Jones, The Birdcatcher

Jamil Jan Kochai, The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories

Sarah Thankam Mathews, All This Could Be Different

Alejandro Varela, The Town of Babylon

Nonfiction

Meghan O’Rourke, The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness

Imani Perry, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

David Quammen, Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus

Ingrid Rojas Contreras, The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir

Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice

Poetry

Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Look at This Blue

John Keene, Punks: New & Selected Poems

Sharon Olds, Balladz

Roger Reeves, Best Barbarian

Jenny Xie, The Rupture Tense

Translated Literature

Jon Fosse, A New Name: Septology VI-VII (translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls)

Scholastique Mukasonga, Kibogo (translated from the French by Mark Polizzott)

Mónica Ojeda, Jawbone (translated from the Spanish by Sarah Booker)

Samanta Schweblin, Seven Empty Houses (translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell)

Yoko Tawada, Scattered All Over the Earth (translated from the Japanese by Margaret Mitsutani)

Young People’s Literature

Kelly Barnhill, The Ogress and the Orphans

Sonora Reyes, The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School

Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes, and Dawud Anyabwile, Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice

Sabaa Tahir, All My Rage

Lisa Yee, Maizy Chen’s Last Chance

You Might Also Like

• The 40 Best Hoodies to Wear Anywhere and Everywhere

• The Dirty Martini Deserves Legend Status

• This Eli Manning Sketch Is the Best Thing You'll See All Week