— Anna Dobben (@annadobben) September 16, 2019 The National Book Foundation announced all longlists for the 2019 National Book Awards this week, and I could not be more excited. The NBAs are the Academy Awards for books. There are five categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature. And this year’s nominees are AMAZING. Here’s a rundown of the titles:

Young People’s Literature

A post shared by National Book Foundation (@nationalbookfoundation) on Sep 16, 2019 at 7:36am PDT Kwame Alexander and Kadir Nelson, The Undefeated Versify / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Laurie Halse Anderson, Shout Akwaeke Emezi, Pet Make Me a World / Penguin Random House Cynthia Kadohata, A Place to Belong Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books / Simon & Schuster Jason Reynolds, Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books / Simon & Schuster Randy Ribay, Patron Saints of Nothing Kokila / Penguin Random House Laura Ruby, Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All Balzer + Bray / HarperCollins Publishers Martin W. Sandler, 1919: The Year That Changed America Bloomsbury Children’s Books / Bloomsbury Publishing Hal Schrieve, Out of Salem Triangle Square / Seven Stories Press Colleen AF Venable and Ellen T. Crenshaw, Kiss Number 8 First Second Books / Macmillan Publishers From the New Yorker announcement: “The judges for the category this year are An Na, the author of four novels, including A Step from Heaven, a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award; Elana K. Arnold, whose novel What Girls Are Made Of was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award; Kristen Gilligan, the co-owner of Tattered Cover Book Store, in Denver; Varian Johnson, the author of The Parker Inheritance and a member of the faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts; and Deborah Taylor, a retired librarian and an adjunct professor of young-adult literature at the University of Maryland.”

Translated Literature

A post shared by National Book Foundation (@nationalbookfoundation) on Sep 17, 2019 at 7:36am PDT Rioter Pierce Alquist, who is an expert on translated literature, also did a great round-up of the titles here. The ten titles on the longlist, originally written in ten different languages, include seven novels, two memoirs, and a collection of essays. Naja Marie Aidt, When Death Takes Something from You Give It Back: Carl’s Book Translated by Denise Newman Coffee House Press Eliane Brum, The Collector of Leftover Souls: Field Notes on Brazil’s Everyday Insurrections Translated by Diane Grosklaus Whitty Graywolf Press Nona Fernández, Space Invaders Translated by Natasha Wimmer Graywolf Press Vigdis Hjorth, Will and Testament Translated by Charlotte Barslund Verso Fiction / Verso Books Khaled Khalifa, Death Is Hard Work Translated by Leri Price Farrar, Straus & Giroux / Macmillan Publishers László Krasznahorkai, Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming Translated by Ottilie Mulzet New Directions Scholastique Mukasonga, The Barefoot Woman Translated by Jordan Stump Archipelago Books Yoko Ogawa, The Memory Police Translated by Stephen Snyder Pantheon Books / Penguin Random House Pajtim Statovci, Crossing Translated by David Hackston Pantheon Books / Penguin Random House Olga Tokarczuk, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House From the New Yorker announcement: “The judges for the category this year are Keith Gessen, a founding editor of n+1, and the author, most recently, of A Terrible Country; Elisabeth Jaquette, a translator and the executive director of the American Literary Translators Association; Katie Kitamura, whose most recent novel, A Separation, has been translated into sixteen languages; Idra Novey, the author of Those Who Knew, who teaches fiction at Princeton University; and Shuchi Saraswat, who has worked at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, GrubStreet, and an independent bookseller.”

Poetry

A post shared by National Book Foundation (@nationalbookfoundation) on Sep 18, 2019 at 7:47am PDT Dan Beachy-Quick, Variations on Dawn and Dusk Omnidawn Publishing Jericho Brown, The Tradition Copper Canyon Press Toi Derricotte, ‘I’: New and Selected Poems University of Pittsburgh Press Camonghne Felix, Build Yourself a Boat Haymarket Books Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic Graywolf Press Ariana Reines, A Sand Book Tin House Books Mary Ruefle, Dunce Wave Books Carmen Giménez Smith, Be Recorder Graywolf Press Arthur Sze, Sight Lines Copper Canyon Press Brian Teare, Doomstead Days Nightboat Books From the New Yorker announcement: “The judges for the category this year are Jos Charles, the author of feeld, which was longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award for Poetry; John Evans, the owner of DIESEL, a bookstore in Los Angeles; Vievee Francis, who has written three books of poetry, including Forest Primeval; Cathy Park Hong, the poetry editor of The New Republic and the author of Engine Empire; and Mark Wunderlich, the director of the Bennington Writing Seminars graduate program, whose new book, God of Nothingness, is forthcoming.”

Nonfiction

A post shared by National Book Foundation (@nationalbookfoundation) on Sep 19, 2019 at 7:30am PDT Hanif Abdurraqib, Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest University of Texas Press Sarah M. Broom, The Yellow House Grove Press / Grove Atlantic Tressie McMillan Cottom, Thick: And Other Essays The New Press Carolyn Forché, What You Have Heard is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance Penguin Press / Penguin Random House Patrick Radden Keefe, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland Doubleday / Penguin Random House David Treuer, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House Greg Grandin, The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America Metropolitan Books / Macmillan Publishers Iliana Regan, Burn the Place: A Memoir Agate Midway / Agate Publishing, Inc. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership The University of North Carolina Press Albert Woodfox with Leslie George, Solitary Grove Press / Grove Atlantic From the New Yorker announcement: “The judges for the category this year are Erica Armstrong Dunbar, a professor of history at Rutgers University and a finalist for a 2017 National Book Award; Carolyn Kellogg, an award-winning culture writer and former books editor of the Los Angeles Times; Mark Laframboise, who has worked for more than twenty years at the Politics and Prose bookstore, in Washington, D.C.; Kiese Laymon, the author, most recently, of Heavy: An American Memoir, and a professor of English at the University of Mississippi; and Jeff Sharlet, an editor-at-large for Virginia Quarterly Review, a winner of a National Magazine Award, and an associate professor at Dartmouth College.”

Fiction

A post shared by National Book Foundation (@nationalbookfoundation) on Sep 20, 2019 at 7:30am PDT Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Fleishman Is in Trouble Random House / Penguin Random House Susan Choi, Trust Exercise Henry Holt & Company / Macmillan Publishers Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Sabrina & Corina: Stories One World / Penguin Random House Marlon James, Black Leopard, Red Wolf Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House Laila Lalami, The Other Americans Pantheon Books / Penguin Random House Kimberly King Parsons, Black Light: Stories Vintage / Penguin Random House Helen Phillips, The Need Simon & Schuster Julia Phillips, Disappearing Earth Alfred A. Knopf / Penguin Random House Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous Penguin Press / Penguin Random House Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys Doubleday / Penguin Random House From the New Yorker announcement: “This year’s judges for the category were Dorothy Allison, the author of Bastard out of Carolina, a National Book Award finalist; Ruth Dickey, the executive director of Seattle Arts & Lectures; Javier Ramirez, a longtime Chicago indie-book seller and the co-owner of Madison Street Books; Danzy Senna, a recipient of the Whiting Award and the author, most recently, of New People, a New York Times Notable Book; and Jeff VanderMeer, the best-selling author of the Southern Reach Trilogy, whose work has been translated into thirty-eight languages.” Congratulations to all the nominees! I’m so glad I don’t have to pick, because my head would explode. The shortlists will be announced October 8, and the winners will be announced November 20 at the 70th National Book Awards Ceremony.