This year’s National Book Awards finalists suit the current moment to a tee.
Featuring stories about climate change, police violence against Black people and queer love stories, 25 works were chosen by the National Book Foundation on Tuesday in five categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature and young people’s literature. Among the finalists are two writers previously recognized by the foundation–Lydia Millet, who made the awards longlist in 2016, and Charles Yu, a 2007 “5 Under 35” honoree. Eight of the 25 finalists are first-time authors.
Yu’s most recent book, “Interior Chinatown”–a “portrait of Asian American identity”–is among the 2020 fiction finalists. Joining him are authors Rumaan Alam, Lydia Millet, Deesha Philyaw and Douglas Stuart, for work on everything from the multifaceted lives of Black women to safety in a time of global danger.
Reviewing Alam’s novel “Leave the World Behind” for The Times, critic Mary Ann Gwinn called it “one of the saddest and most gripping books.”
The National Book Awards ceremony will go virtual this year on Nov. 18, streaming on YouTube and the Foundation’s website, www.nationalbook.org. The event will award two lifetime achievement honors: Walter Mosley will be recognized with the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and Carolyn Reidy will posthumously receive the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.
