National Book Award Finalists Announced

The shortlists for the 2015 National Book Awards were revealed on Wednesday, October 14, on NPR’s Morning Edition. The previously announced longlists in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people’s literature were each narrowed down from 10 to five finalists.

To be eligible for a 2015 National Book Award, a book must have been written by a U.S. citizen and published in the United States between December 1, 2014, and November 30, 2015. Contenders for the best books of the year are chosen by a group of distinguished judges, consisting of authors, critics, librarians, and booksellers.

Winners will be announced on November 18 at the National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner in New York City. Each will receive $10,000 in prize money.

The 2015 National Book Awards finalists are:

Fiction

• Karen E. Bender, Refund (Soft Skull/Counterpoint Press)
• Angela Flournoy, The Turner House (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Lauren Groff, Fates and Furies (Riverhead Books/Penguin Random House)
• Adam Johnson, Fortune Smiles (Random House/Penguin Random House)
• Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life (Doubleday/Penguin Random House)

Nonfiction

• Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me (Spiegel & Grau/Penguin Random House)
• Sally Mann, Hold Still: A Memoir With Photographs (Little, Brown/Hachette Book Group)
• Sy Montgomery, The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness (Atria/Simon & Schuster)
• Carla Power, If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran (Henry Holt & Company/Macmillan)
• Tracy K. Smith, Ordinary Light: A Memoir (Alfred A. Knopf)

Poetry

• Ross Gay, Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (University of Pittsburgh Press)
• Terrance Hayes, How to Be Drawn (Penguin)
• Robin Coste Lewis, Voyage of the Sable Venus (Alfred A. Knopf)
• Ada Limón, Bright Dead Things (Milkweed Editions)
• Patrick Phillips, Elegy for a Broken Machine (Alfred A. Knopf)

Young People’s Literature

• Ali Benjamin, The Thing About Jellyfish (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette Book Group)
• Laura Ruby, Bone Gap (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins Children’s Books)
• Steve Sheinkin, Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War (Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group)
• Neal Shusterman, Challenger Deep (HarperTeen/HarperCollins Children’s Books)
• Noelle Stevenson, Nimona (HarperTeen/HarperCollins Children’s Books)