The finalists for the National Book Award for Fiction have been revealed, with 10 authors in contention for the literary prize.
Two of the nominated writers are also finalists for the 2025 Kirkus Prize: Angela Flournoy for The Wilderness and Megha Majumdar for A Guardian and a Thief. Flournoy was a finalist for the National Book Award for her 2015 novel, The Turner House, while Majumdar was longlisted for the prize in 2020 for A Burning.
Susan Choi, who won the 2019 National Book Award for Trust Exercise, made this year’s longlist for Flashlight. Rabih Alameddine was nominated for The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother), alongside Jonas Hassen Khemiri for The Sisters, Kevin Moffett for Only Son, and Karen Russell for The Antidote.
Also making the longlist were Ethan Rutherford for North Sun: Or, the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther; Bryan Washington for Palaver, and Joy Williams for The Pelican Child.
Previous winners of the National Book Award for Fiction include Ralph Ellison for Invisible Man, Tim O’Brien for Going After Cacciato, E. Annie Proulx for The Shipping News, and Sigrid Nunez for The Friend.
The shortlist for the award will be revealed on October 7, with the winner announced at a ceremony in New York on November 19.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
