Does the expression “third time’s the charm” apply to prestigious literary awards? Edwidge Danticat will have the opportunity to find out. She is now a three-time finalist for a National Book Award, announced Tuesday morning. Danticat’s novel, Deyis about a woman who witnesses a violent gun attack at a Miami shopping mall. Danticat short story collection Krik? Krak! was a finalist for the prize in 1995, and his book Brother, I’m dyingwas a non-fiction finalist in 2007.
Other writers in the running for the 2026 fiction prize include Hannah Lillith Assadi, Julián Delgado Lopera, Valeria Luiselli and debut novelist Morgan Thomas, whose book Crazy Eden is the moving story that follows a patient navigator at a center providing gender-affirming care.
Camonghne Felix also mixes forms in the non-fiction category. His book Let the Poets Rule: A Declaration of Freedom is both a memoir and a call to action, drawing on Félix’s experience as a communications strategist. Felix faces Colin Asher, Sara Nović, Joseph Osmundson and Abdelrahman ElGendy, whose memoir, Huna, explores his time in an Egyptian prison.
The winners of the National Book Awards will be announced on November 18, 2026.
Find the full list below.
Fiction
Hannah Lillith Assadi, Paradise 17
Edwidge Danticat, Dey
Julian Delgado Lopera, Pretend you’re dead and I’ll carry you
Valerie Luiselli, Start Middle End
Morgane Thomas, Crazy Eden
Non-fiction
Colin Asher, The Midnight Special: The Secret Prison History of American Music
Abdelrahman El Gendy, Huna: Memories of revolution, prison and becoming
Camonghne Felix, Let the Poets Rule: A Declaration of Freedom
Sara Novic, Native language
Joseph Osmundson, Spawning Season: An Experiment in Queer Parenting
Poetry
Victoria Chang, Tree of Knowledge
Caroline Ebeid, Hide
Brenda Hillman, Still House in the Desert: An eco-contemplation
Fady Joudah, Exhibit G: Poems, essays and photographs from Gaza
Susan Stewart, Bramble
Translated literature
Karl Ove Knausgaard, Night schooltranslated from Norwegian as Martin Aitken
Vicente Luis Mora, Centroeuropa, translated from Spanish as Rahul Bery
Intan Paramaditha, Night of a thousand hells, translated from Indonesian as Stephen J. Epstein And Tiffany Tsao
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Pure men, translated from French as Lara Vergnaud
Samar Yazbek, Your presence is a danger to your life: Voices of survival and testimony in Gaza, ttranslated from Arabic as Leri Price
Children’s literature
Elana K. Arnold, Holloway
Tae Keller, When tomorrow burns
Keala Kendall, What feeds us: Hawaiian gothic
David Levithan And Gabriel Duckels, The Fight of Our Lives: AIDS in America
Julien Randall, Shaken
Gn entert
