Finalists & Longlists Template
2025 NBCC Award Finalists
Fiction
Longlisted Books
The Antidote by Karen Russell (Knopf)
Audition by Katie Kitamura (Riverhead)
The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien (W.W. Norton)
Heart the Lover by Lily King (Grove)
Long Distance by Ayşegül Savaş (Bloomsbury)
On the Calculation of Volume (Book III) by Solvej Balle, translated from the Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell (New Directions)
Sea, Poison by Caren Beilin (New Directions)
The South by Tash Aw (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
We Do Not Part by Han Kang, translated from the Korean by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris (Hogarth)
The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy (Mariner)
Nonfiction
Longlisted Books
America, América: A New History of the New World by Greg Grandin (Penguin Press)
Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins by Barbara Demick (Random House)
Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI by Karen Hao (Penguin Press)
The Intermediaries: A Weimar Story by Brandy Schillace (W. W. Norton)
King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution, a Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation by Scott Anderson (Doubleday)
Misbehaving at the Crossroads: Essays & Writings by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (Harper)
No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson by Gardiner Harris (Random House)
A Return to Self: Excursions in Exile by Aatish Taseer (Catapult)
Sick and Dirty: Hollywood’s Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness by Michael Koresky (Bloomsbury)
Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America by Michael Luo (Doubleday)
Biography
Longlisted Books
Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America by Sam Tanenhaus (Random House)
Constantine Cavafy: A New Biography by Gregory Jusdanis and Peter Jeffreys (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood's First South Asian Star by Mayukh Sen (W. W. Norton)
A Perfect Turmoil: Walter E. Fernald and the Struggle to Care for America's Disabled by Alex Green (Bellevue Literary Press)
Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution by Amanda Vaill (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore by Ashley D. Farmer (Pantheon)
Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson by Claire Hoffman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford by Carla Kaplan (Harper)
Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux (W. W. Norton)
William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love by Philip Hoare (Pegasus Books)
Autobiography
Longlisted Books
Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood (Doubleday)
The Broken King by Michael Thomas (Grove)
I'll Tell You When I'm Home by Hala Alyan (Avid Reader Press)
Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks (Viking)
Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy (Scribner)
Paper Girl by Beth Macy (Penguin)
Shattered by Hanif Kureishi (Ecco)
Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews (Bloomsbury)
Twice Born: Finding My Father In the Margins of Biography by Hester Kaplan (Catapult)
Poetry
Longlisted Books
After You Were, I Am by Camille Ralphs (McSweeney's)
Chronicle of Drifting by Yuki Tanaka (Copper Canyon)
Death of the First Idea by Rickey Laurentiis (Knopf)
Into the Hush by Arthur Sze (Copper Canyon)
Night Watch by Kevin Young (Knopf)
The Other Love by Henri Cole (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Salvage by Hedgie Choi (University of Wisconsin)
small lives by Gary Jackson (University of New Mexico)
Stay Dead by Natalie Shapero (Copper Canyon)
Unravel by Tolu Oloruntoba (McClelland & Stewart)
Criticism
Longlisted Books
Algorithm of the Night: Film Writing, 2019-2025 by A.S. Hamrah (n+1)
Authority: Essays by Andrea Long Chu (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Dismantling the Master's Clock: On Race, Space, and Time by Rasheedah Phillips (AK Press)
Erik Satie Three Piece Suite by Ian Penman (Semiotext(e))
Exophony: Voyages Outside the Mother Tongue by Yoko Tawada, translated from the Japanese by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda (New Directions)
Greyhound by Joanna Pocock (Soft Skull Press)
Hayek's Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right by Quinn Slobodian (Zone Books)
Medium Hot: Images in the Age of Heat by Hito Steyerl (Verso Books)
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (Knopf)
To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Harvard University Press)
Gregg Barrios Book in Translation
Longlisted Books
Bodies Found in Various Places by Elvira Hernández, translated from the Spanish by Daniel Borzutzky and Alec Schumacher (Cardboard House)
Exophony: Voyages Outside the Mother Tongue by Yoko Tawada, translated from the Japanese by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda (New Directions)
Gaza: The Poem Said Its Piece by Nasser Rabah, translated from the Arabic by Ammiel Alcalay, Emna Zghal and Khaled Al-Hilli (City Lights)
Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated from the Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi (And Other Stories)
Near Distance by Hanna Stoltenberg, translated from the Norwegian by Wendy H. Gabrielsen (Biblioasis)
Sad Tiger by Neige Sinno, translated from the French by Natasha Lehrer (Seven Stories)
The Frog in the Throat by Markus Werner, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann (NYRB)
The Ruins by Ye Hui, translated from the Chinese by Dong Li (Deep Vellum)
The Wax Child by Olga Ravn, translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken (New Directions)
Ugliness by Moshtari Hilal, translated from the German by Elisabeth Lauffer (New Vessel Press)
We Do Not Part by Han Kang, translated from the Korean by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris (Hogarth)
Wickerwork by Christian Lehnert, translated from the German by Richard Sieburth (Archipelago)