Here are the finalists for the 2022 National Book Awards
By Maureen Pao
Updated Tuesday, October 4, 2022 • 10:15 AM EDT
The finalists for this year's National Book Awards have been announced.
Among the nominees are author Yoko Tawada and translator Margaret Mistutani, who won the 2018 National Book Award for translated literature. Three other nominees — Gayl Jones, Scholastique Mukasonga and Pulitzer-winning poet Sharon Olds – have been finalists before.
In contrast, three of the five finalists for fiction have been nominated for their debut novels: Sarah Tess Gunty, Sarah Thankam Mathews and Alejandro Varela.
And all five of the finalists for young people's literature are being honored by the National Book Awards for the first time, including Tommie Smith, the U.S. athlete who raised a fist in protest against racial discrimination at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico.
The winners will be announced on Nov. 16 in New York City. Two lifetime achievement awards will also be presented, to Maus author Art Spiegelman and Tracie D. Hall, the first African American woman to serve as the American Library Association's executive director.
Winners of a National Book Award receive $10,000. The full list of finalists is below.
Fiction
Tess Gunty, The Rabbit Hutch
Gayl Jones, The Birdcatcher
Jamil Jan Kochai, The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories
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Sarah Thankam Mathews, All This Could Be Different
Alejandro Varela, The Town of Babylon
Nonfiction
Meghan O'Rourke, The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness
Imani Perry, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation
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David Quammen, Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus
Ingrid Rojas Contreras, The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir
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Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice
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Poetry
Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Look at This Blue
John Keene, Punks: New & Selected Poems
Sharon Olds, Balladz
Roger Reeves, Best Barbarian
Jenny Xie, The Rupture Tense
Translated Literature
Jon Fosse, A New Name: Septology VI-VII. Translated by Damion Searls
Scholastique Mukasonga, Kibogo. Translated by Mark Polizzotti
Mónica Ojeda, Jawbone. Translated by Sarah Booker
Samanta Schweblin, Seven Empty Houses. Translated by Megan McDowell
Yoko Tawada, Scattered All Over the Earth. Translated by Margaret Mitsutani
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Young People's Literature
Kelly Barnhill, The Ogress and the Orphans
Sonora Reyes, The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School
Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes and Dawud Anyabwile, Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice
Sabaa Tahir, All My Rage
Lisa Yee, Maizy Chen's Last Chance