25 finalists vie for the 2023 National Book Awards

Twenty-five titles have been shortlisted for the 2023 National Book Awards, the National Book Foundation announced Tuesday morning.

Narrowed down from last month’s longlist, the finalists will compete across five genres: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature and young people’s literature.

In the fiction category, Aaliyah Bilal’s debut collection “Temple Folk,” which intimately portrays the experiences of Black Muslims in America interrogating their relationship with mainstream culture, faces off against previous National Book Foundation honoree Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah.

Adjei-Brenyah’s dystopian novel “Chain-Gang All-Stars” features gladiators competing for their freedom in a for-profit prison system in death matches broadcast live through “Criminal Action Penal Entertainment.” Also nominated for fiction were Paul Harding for “This Other Eden,” Hanna Pylväinen for “The End of Drum-Time” and Justin Torres for “Blackouts.”

Books examining race, oppression and violence dominate the nonfiction shortlist. Historian Ned Blackhawk’s “The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History” explores the role Indigenous peoples have played in the development of American democracy, while Christina Sharpe’s “Ordinary Notes” dives deep into the legacy of white supremacy and slavery and the way these losses have shaped Black culture and life.

In Cristina Rivera Garza’s “Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice,” the author travels to Mexico City to recover the case file of her sister’s unresolved murder nearly 30 years after her death. Raja Shehadeh’s “We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir,” examines Shehadeh’s complex relationship with his father, a Palestinian human rights activist assassinated in 1985. John Vaillant’s “Fire Weather: A True Story From a Hotter World” rounds out the nonfiction list.

Among those recognized for translated literature is David Diop, whose second novel, “Beyond the Door of No Return.” explores the relationship between an 18th-century French botanist and a formerly enslaved woman in Senegal. Bora Chung’s surrealist dark fantasy “Cursed Bunny” also made the list.

The winners will be announced live Nov. 15 at the 74th National Book Awards Ceremony & Benefit Dinner in New York City.

The National Book Foundation will broadcast the ceremony on YouTube, Facebook and at nationalbook.org.

Two lifetime achievement awards will also be presented as part of the awards ceremony: National Book Award finalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Rita Dove will be honored with the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. And Paul Yamazaki, principal buyer at City Lights Booksellers & Publishers, will receive the Foundation’s Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.

Here are this year’s 25 finalists:

• Fiction

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, “Chain-Gang All-Stars”

Aaliyah Bilal, “Temple Folk”

Paul Harding, “This Other Eden”

Hanna Pylväinen, “The End of Drum-Time”

Justin Torres, “Blackouts”

• Nonfiction

Ned Blackhawk, “The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History”

Cristina Rivera Garza,”Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice”

Christina Sharpe, “Ordinary Notes”

Raja Shehadeh, “We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir”

John Vaillant, “Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World”

• Poetry

John Lee Clark, “How to Communicate”

Craig Santos Perez, “from unincorporated territory (amot)”

Evie Shockley, “suddenly we”

Brandon Som, “Tripas”

Monica Youn, “From From”

• Translated literature

Bora Chung, “Cursed Bunny.” Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur

David Diop, “Beyond the Door of No Return.” Translated from the French by Sam Taylor

Stênio Gardel, “The Words That Remain.” Translated from the Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato

Pilar Quintana, “Abyss.” Translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman

Astrid Roemer, “On a Woman’s Madness.” Translated from the Dutch by Lucy Scott

• Young people’s literature

Kenneth M. Cadow, “Gather”

Huda Fahmy, “Huda F Cares?”

Vashti Harrison, “Big”

Katherine Marsh, “The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine”

Dan Santat, “A First Time for Everything”