2025 National Book Awards

The 76th National Book Awards, presented at a ceremony and benefit dinner by the National Book Foundation, took place on November 19, 2025, in New York City. The ceremony included a musical performance by Corinne Bailey Rae, with Jeff Hiller giving the welcoming and closing remarks.

Winner and nominees

Category	Winner	Shortlist	Longlist
Fiction	Rabih Alameddine, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible	Megha Majumdar, A Guardian and a Thief Karen Russell, The Antidote Ethan Rutherford, North Sun: Or, the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther Bryan Washington, Palaver	Susan Choi, Flashlight Angela Flournoy, The Wilderness Jonas Hassen Khemiri, The Sisters Kevin Moffett, Only Son Joy Williams, The Pelican Child
Nonfiction	Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This	Julia Ioffe, Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy Yiyun Li, Things in Nature Merely Grow Claudia Rowe, Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care Jordan Thomas, When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World	Caleb Gayle, Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State Fatemeh Jamalpour and Nilo Tabrizy, For the Sun After Long Nights: The Story of Iran's Women-Led Uprising Lana Lin, The Autobiography of H. Lan Thao Lam Ben Ratliff, Run the Song: Writing About Running About Listening Helen Whybrow, The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd's Life
Poetry	Patricia Smith, The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems	Gabrielle Calvocoressi, The New Economy Cathy Linh Che, Becoming Ghost Tiana Clark, Scorched Earth Richard Siken, I Do Know Some Things	Gbenga Adesina, Death Does Not End at the Sea Rickey Laurentiis, Death of the First Idea Esther Lin, Cold Thief Place Natalie Shapero, Stay Dead Fargo Nissim Tbakhi, Terror Counter
Translated Literature	Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, We Are Green and Trembling	Solvej Balle, On the Calculation of Volume Anjet Daanje, The Remembered Soldier Hamid Ismailov, We Computers: A Ghazal Novel Neige Sinno, Sad Tiger	Jazmina Barrera, The Queen of Swords Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback Han Kang, We Do Not Part Mohamed Kheir, Sleep Phase Vincenzo Latronico, Perfection
Young People's Literature	Daniel Nayeri, The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story	Kyle Lukoff, A World Worth Saving Amber McBride, The Leaving Room Hannah V. Sawyerr, Truth Is Ibi Zoboi, Kin	María Dolores Águila, A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez K. Ancrum, The Corruption of Hollis Brown Derrick Barnes, The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze Mahogany L. Browne, A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe Maria van Lieshout, Song of a Blackbird

Judges

Fiction

Rumaan Alam, author of 2020 finalist Leave the World Behind
Debra Magpie Earling, author of Perma Red and The Lost Journals of Sacajewea
Attica Locke, author of Guide Me Home and Black Water Rising
Elizabeth McCracken, author of The Souvenir Museum, The Giant's House, and Thunderstruck, which have all been honored by the NBA
Cody Morrison, bookseller at Square Books

Nonfiction

Heather Kathleen Moody Hall, proprietor of the Green Feather Book Company
Tiya Miles, historian, professor at Harvard, and author of NBA-winning All That She Carried
Raj Patel, journalist, filmmaker, and author of Stuffed and Starved
Cristina Rivera Garza, author of Pulitzer prize-winning Liliana's Invincible Summer and professor at the University of Houston
Eli Saslow, twice Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and writer-at-large for ''The New York Times''

Poetry

Kate Daniels, author In the Months of My Son's Recovery
Terrance Hayes, author of 2010 NBA-winning Lighthead
H. Melt, author of There Are Trans People Here
Anis Mojgani, Oregon's tenth poet laureate
Caridad Moro-Gronlier, author of ''Tortillera''

Translated Literature

Stesha Brandon, literature and humanities program manager at the Seattle Public Library
Sergio Gutiérrez Negrón, Hispanic studies professor at Oberlin College and author of Los días hábiles
Bill Johnston, Polish and French literature translator known for National Translation Award-winning translation of Pan Tadeusz
Annette K. Joseph-Gabriel, Romance studies professor at Duke University
Karen Tei Yamashita, professor emerita at University of California, Santa Cruz and author of ''I Hotel''

Young People's Literature

Cathy Berner, bookseller at Blue Willow Bookshop and former school librarian
David Bowles, professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and author of My Two Border Towns
candice iloh, author of 2020 NBA-finalist Every Body Looking
Jung Kim, education professor at Lewis University
Maulik Pancholy, actor and award-winning author best known for his role as Jonathan on 30 Rock and Baljeet on ''Phineas and Ferb''