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---
description: Jesmyn Ward, Jennifer Egan and David Grann are among the nominees.
title: Here Are the Nominees for the 2017 National Book Award
image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production
---

* [Ideas](/section/ideas/)  
## Ideas  

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# Here Are the Nominees for the 2017 National Book Award


by 

[Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/)


## Sarah Begley


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Sep 15, 2017 7:14 PM CUT

by 

[Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/)


## Sarah Begley


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Sep 15, 2017 7:14 PM CUT

The [National Book Foundation](http://time.com/4643019/national-book-foundation-donald-trump/ "undefined") announced its long lists for the 2017 awards this week, with the final and most anticipated category — fiction — announced on Friday.

The list includes past favorites, like [_Sing, Unburied, Sing_](http://time.com/4641670/women-books-movies-shows-2017/item// "undefined") author [Jesmyn Ward](http://time.com/4913697/jesmyn-ward-heir-to-faulkner-author-profile/ "undefined") — who won the award in 2011 for her last novel, _Salvage the Bones —_ as well as newcomers like debut novelist Lisa Ko.

The short list will come out on Oct. 4, and the winners will be announced in a ceremony on Nov. 15.

**Fiction**  
 Elliot Ackerman, [_Dark at the Crossing_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1907970959/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1907970959&linkId=532e409246d373f66b238926b605e093 "undefined")  
 Daniel Alarcón, [_The King Is Always Above the People: Stories_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594631727/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1594631727&linkId=93effd041772dcf68d4bd3602a92bfd4 "undefined")  
 Charmaine Craig, [_Miss Burma_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0802126456/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0802126456&linkId=68cdf2f03847ce960980d80a00b31079 "undefined")  
 Jennifer Egan, [_Manhattan Beach_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1476716730/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1476716730&linkId=e4785b7ab66092329a842afc78d56b80 "undefined")  
 Lisa Ko, [_The Leavers_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616206888/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1616206888&linkId=b857256445bef65ee04c0e03e65f0872 "undefined")  
 Min Jin Lee, [_Pachinko_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1455563935/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1455563935&linkId=b67251d08e8391e498e77726128224ee "undefined")  
 Carmen Maria Machado, [_Her Body and Other Parties: Stories_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/155597788X/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=155597788X&linkId=59f7cf3f3b680a7707d0eff3e2722fd0 "undefined")  
 Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, [_A Kind of Freedom_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1619029227/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1619029227&linkId=c747d15572c45825728216aae6f8d599 "undefined")  
 Jesmyn Ward,[ _Sing, Unburied, Sing_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501126067/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1501126067&linkId=a9a0fd2b1d6eaebb8d8e6f4f742c5178 "undefined")  
 Carol Zoref, [_Barren Island_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1936970449/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1936970449&linkId=9187d1b37c500b12416ecad3290e906a "undefined")

**Nonfiction**  
 Erica Armstrong Dunbar, [_Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501126393/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1501126393&linkId=60a5f141512f3dde9d9810928b8413a1 "undefined")  
 Frances FitzGerald, [_The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439131333/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1439131333&linkId=8f129bfcf1c3d9e7b0ca69cb63f8d068 "undefined")  
 James Forman Jr., [_Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374189978/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0374189978&linkId=421d33ffb70db09b330f9ce3b35d1477 "undefined")  
 Masha Gessen, [_The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159463453X/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=159463453X&linkId=155df9b0834b805b980f4881005364e6 "undefined")  
 David Grann, [_Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385534248/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0385534248&linkId=1d6019f142e8cb64399f01e7201efb27 "undefined")  
 Naomi Klein, [_No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1608468909/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1608468909&linkId=592e5323d4489acf1d3c417c08f4dfcc "undefined")  
 Nancy MacLean, [_Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1101980966/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1101980966&linkId=855eb6cdc5be38a4ec2cad6ad4b40d78 "undefined")  
 Richard Rothstein, [_The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1631492853/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1631492853&linkId=2cef348f543aff435c8db8b548cc145c "undefined")  
 Kevin Young, [_Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/155597791X/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=155597791X&linkId=647f8ea698ddb8c4d736cff94a15bd72 "undefined")

**Poetry**  
 Frank Bidart, [_Half-light: Collected Poems 1965-2016_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374125953/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0374125953&linkId=aaf5ce801ba89a6f2083bc68f3c9ad4e "undefined")  
 Chen Chen, [_When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1942683332/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1942683332&linkId=ab864550769d34086b49eaee4198ec9e "undefined")  
 Leslie Harrison, [_The Book of Endings_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1629220639/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1629220639&linkId=c775bb2be9be3072284974c83055d1e9 "undefined")  
 Marie Howe, [_Magdalene: Poems_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393285308/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0393285308&linkId=f103589d70e7e56c44f67fc06e5925b3 "undefined")  
 Laura Kasischke, [_Where Now: New and Selected Poems_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1556595123/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1556595123&linkId=b549ce2019dedecd7041580683e52d64 "undefined")  
 Layli Long Soldier, [_WHEREAS_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1555977677/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1555977677&linkId=38c8036fd17984a5e8a846b9820d336d "undefined")  
 Shane McCrae,[ _In the Language of My Captor_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0819577111/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0819577111&linkId=c70adb55bce2e9a6c015e05a887f1228 "undefined")  
 Sherod Santos, [_Square Inch Hours_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393254984/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0393254984&linkId=918ad343c84fba0ded49ae8a02f3fd4e "undefined")  
 Danez Smith, [_Don’t Call Us Dead: Poems_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1555977855/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1555977855&linkId=932eddeb70ca8100b0c1be2fdfec74c0 "undefined")  
 Mai Der Vang, [_Afterland_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1555977707/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1555977707&linkId=92f225a2e09a1e29b2dbf25d07087490 "undefined")

**Young People’s Literature**  
 Elana K. Arnold, [_What Girls Are Made Of_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1512410241/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1512410241&linkId=3b09ff174415f457cf4aab6eba92ed10 "undefined")  
 Robin Benway, [_Far from the Tree_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062330624/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0062330624&linkId=15c80be0d0b1d01b4e4a97329fde7a83 "undefined")  
 Samantha Mabry, [_All the Wind in the World_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616206667/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1616206667&linkId=d17114e504477f30e94c076b6764521d "undefined")  
 Mitali Perkins, [_You Bring the Distant Near_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374304904/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0374304904&linkId=347e8e7ba2dddeff059dd8cfcf6a3965 "undefined")  
 Jason Reynolds, [_Long Way Down_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1481438255/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1481438255&linkId=2ecb243025b56ead211d787957787314 "undefined")  
 Erika L. Sánchez, [_I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1524700487/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1524700487&linkId=eac94bf6a1c2a3abbf80b23ae6a8a37e "undefined")  
 Laurel Snyder, [_Orphan Island_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062443410/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0062443410&linkId=9eb431ea43795f2cbb5e622be5f66847 "undefined")  
 Angie Thomas, [_The Hate U Give_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062498533/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0062498533&linkId=01403183f26174ea8db8b65ffc245a49 "undefined")  
 Rita Williams-Garcia,[ _Clayton Byrd Goes Underground_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062215914/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0062215914&linkId=071f772b90098c60b1c1e466753545f8 "undefined")  
 Ibi Zoboi,[ _American Street_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062473042/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0062473042&linkId=d5522109c4269fbad560d1c06735aa29 "undefined")

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