Edwidge Danticat is back in the National Book Awards race, and this time she’s the one making the joke about being a three-time finalist. Her new novel Dèy has made the fiction shortlist for 2026, joining a group that includes Hannah Lillith Assadi, Julián Delgado Lopera, Valeria Luiselli, and debut novelist Morgan Thomas.
Danticat’s previous nods came with her short story collection Krik? Krak! in 1995 and her non-fiction book Brother, I’m Dying in 2007. This year’s fiction list also features a story that bends form: Morgan Thomas’s Mad Eden, about a patient navigator at a center providing gender-affirming care.
The winners will be announced Nov. 18, 2026. Here’s who made the cut.
The Fiction Shortlist
The fiction category runs five books deep, and Danticat’s Dèy is the one that draws attention because of her history with the award. The novel follows a woman who witnesses a violent gun attack in a Miami mall.
Hannah Lillith Assadi’s Paradiso 17 joins her on the list. Julián Delgado Lopera’s Pretend You’re Dead and I Carry You is also in contention. Valeria Luiselli’s Beginning Middle End rounds out the group, along with Thomas’s Mad Eden.
Nonfiction and Its Form-Benders
The nonfiction category pushes toward memoir and call-to-action in equal measure. Camonghne Felix’s Let the Poets Govern: A Declaration of Freedom is both a memoir and a call-to-action, drawing on Felix’s background as a communications strategist. It faces Colin Asher, Sara Nović, Joseph Osmundson, and Abdelrahman ElGendy, whose memoir Huna explores his time in an Egyptian prison.
“The third time’s the charm” applies to prestigious literary awards.
What makes this list unusual is the mix of form and purpose across the nominees. Some of the books read like conventional memoirs, while others function more as calls to political action. That combination reflects a broader trend in contemporary nonfiction: writers moving between personal storytelling and public advocacy, often within the same work.
Poetry and the Translated List
Poetry moves through five titles. Victoria Chang’s Tree of Knowledge, Carolina Ebeid’s Hide, Brenda Hillman’s Still House in the Desert: An eco-contemplation, Fady Joudah’s Exhibit G: Poems, Essays, and Photographs of Gaza, and Susan Stewart’s Bramble fill out the category.
The translated literature category brings five books. Karl Ove Knausgaard’s The School of Night, translated from the Norwegian by Martin Aitken, stands alongside Vicente Luis Mora’s Centroeuropa, translated from the Spanish by Rahul Bery. Intan Paramaditha’s Night of a Thousand Hells, translated from the Indonesian by Stephen J. Epstein and Tiffany Tsao, and Mohamed Mbougar Sarr’s Pure Men, translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud, round out the group. Samar Yazbek’s Your Presence Is a Danger to Your Life: Voices of Survival and Witness in Gaza, translated from the Arabic by Leri Price, completes the list.
Young People’s Literature Roundup
The young adult category runs seven books deep. Elana K. Arnold’s Holloway, Tae Keller’s When Tomorrow Burns, Keala Kendall’s That Which Feeds Us: A Hawaiian Gothic, David Levithan and Gabriel Duckels’s The Fight of Our Lives: AIDS in America, and Julian Randall’s Shook all made the cut.
The youth category is particularly long this year, running seven titles instead of the usual count. That suggests publishers and judges found a strong field of young adult fiction this cycle, with enough merit to stretch the list beyond its typical length.
What This Means for Danticat
Danticat’s return to the fiction shortlist after years in nonfiction is notable, especially given her past history with the award. Her earlier nods came with Krik? Krak! in 1995 and Brother, I’m Dying in 2007.
Her presence on this list marks a return to the fiction category after a stretch spent in nonfiction. The fact that she is now a three-time finalist gives the phrase “the third time’s the charm” a literal edge. Whether the charm holds remains to be seen, but the nomination itself is a reminder of how frequently Danticat has appeared on these lists.
The Numbers Behind the List
- Fiction finalists: 5 (Assadi, Danticat, Delgado Lopera, Luiselli, Thomas)
- Nonfiction finalists: 6 (Asher, ElGendy, Felix, Nović, Osmundson, Sarr)
- Poetry finalists: 5 (Chang, Ebeid, Hillman, Joudah, Stewart)
- Translated literature finalists: 5 (Knausgaard, Mora, Paramaditha, Sarr, Yazbek)
- Young people’s literature finalists: 7 (Arnold, Keller, Kendall, Levithan/Duckels, Randall)
- Winners announced: Nov. 18, 2026
The National Book Awards have become one of the most visible honors in American literature, and this year’s list reflects the range of voices currently working in the field. From Danticat’s Miami mall story to Felix’s call-to-action memoir, the finalists cross genre, nationality, and form with ease.
The announcement of the winners will settle the question of who takes home the prize. Until then, the shortlist stands as a snapshot of what publishers and judges considered worthy of recognition this year.
Source material: “Here are the finalists for the 2026 National Book Awards,” NPR.
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