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Each year, the Finalists in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature gather the evening before the National Book Awards Ceremony to read excerpts from their honored works to the public. To learn more about the 2025 National Book Awards Finalists, click here.
The 2025 National Book Awards Finalist Reading will be hosted by Michelle Zauner, bestselling author of Crying in H Mart, and the songwriter, musician, and lead vocalist of Japanese Breakfast.
The event will be presented in person at NYU Skirball and livestreamed at nationalbook.org/awards for readers everywhere.
Tune in live on Tuesday, November 18 at 7:00pm EST.
Presented in partnership with the National Book Foundation and the NYU Creative Writing Program.
FICTION FINALISTS
Rabih Alameddine, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)
Megha Majumdar, A Guardian and a Thief
Karen Russell, The Antidote
Ethan Rutherford, North Sun: Or, the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther
Bryan Washington, Palaver
NONFICTION FINALISTS
Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
Julia Ioffe, Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy
Yiyun Li, Things in Nature Merely Grow
Claudia Rowe, Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care
Jordan Thomas, When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World
POETRY FINALISTS
Gabrielle Calvocoressi, The New Economy
Cathy Linh Che, Becoming Ghost
Tiana Clark, Scorched Earth
Richard Siken, I Do Know Some Things
Patricia Smith, The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems
TRANSLATED LITERATURE FINALISTS
Solvej Balle, and translators Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell, On the Calculation of Volume (Book III)
Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, and translator Robin Myers, We Are Green and Trembling
Anjet Daanje, and translator David McKay, The Remembered Soldier
Hamid Ismailov, and translator Shelley Fairweather-Vega, We Computers: A Ghazal Novel
Neige Sinno, and translator Natasha Lehrer, Sad Tiger
YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE FINALISTS
Kyle Lukoff, A World Worth Saving
Amber McBride, The Leaving Room
Daniel Nayeri, The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story
Hannah V. Sawyerr, Truth Is
Ibi Zoboi, (S)Kin
(Finalists will not appear in this order. For select Finalists unable to attend, a literary luminary will read on their behalf.)
Michelle Zauner is a musician and author based in New York City. She has won acclaim from major music outlets around the world for her albums Psychopomp and Soft Sounds from Another Planet. Her album, Jubilee, earned two GRAMMY nominations for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Album. She is currently on tour supporting her latest record, For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women). Her first book, Crying in H Mart, was a #1 New York Times Bestseller. In 2022, TIME Magazine named Michelle one of its 100 Most Influential People.
(Photo credit: Sam Hellmann)
The 76th National Book Awards Ceremony will be broadcast live on Wednesday, November 19, 2025 at 8:00pm EST. Sign up to watch, receive updates about the upcoming ceremony, and discover this year’s Winners in real-time.
