The 2026 National Book Awards Longlist

This week, The New Yorker is announcing the longlists for the 2025 National Book Awards, including Young People’s Literature, Translated Literature, Poetry, Nonfiction, and Fiction. To receive book recommendations from our writers and editors, plus short reviews of recent releases, sign up for our new What We’re Reading newsletter.

This year’s longlist includes fiction, nonfiction, novels in verse, and one picture book. Several titles on this year’s list explore the power of art and the written word; others feature supernatural encounters or voyages through space and time. Two of the authors on the longlist—Elana K. Arnold and David Levithan—have been nominated for the award before.

Delali Adjoa, “The Free Verse Society”
Peachtree Teen / Peachtree Publishing

Elana K. Arnold, “Holloway”
Clarion Books / HarperCollins Publishers

T. A. Chan, “The Celestial Seas”
Viking Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House

Tae Keller, “When Tomorrow Burns”
Random House Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House

Keala Kendall, “That Which Feeds Us: A Hawaiian Gothic”
Random House Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House

David Levithan and Gabriel Duckels, “The Fight of Our Lives: AIDS in America”
Knopf Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House

Chanel Miller, “The Moon Without Stars”
Philomel Books / Penguin Random House

Eric Darnell Pritchard, “Clothes to Make You Smile: Patrick Kelly Designs His Dreams”
Abrams Books for Young Readers / Abrams

Julian Randall, “Shook”
Henry Holt and Company (BYR) / Macmillan Publishers

Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr, “Life on the Moon”
Knopf Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House

The judges for the category this year are Edith Campbell, a founder of the We Are Kid Lit Collective; Brandy Colbert (Chair), the author of “Black Birds in the Sky”; Tricia Ebarvia, a co-founder of the Institute for Racial Equity in Literacy; Jarrett J. Krosoczka, whose graphic memoir “Hey, Kiddo” was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2018; and Anne Ursu, whose novel “The Real Boy” was long-listed for the National Book Award in 2013.

For more information about the 77th National Book Awards and to register to watch the winners announced live, please visit nationalbook.org/awards. ♦