The Watch Educating Elainia (2006)race to the National Book Awards is heating up.
On Wednesday, the National Book Foundation revealed the finalists for the 2017 National Book Awards, narrowing down its list of nominated books from 40 to 20 titles. Each year, the National Book Award honors the best and brightest new literature in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people's literature.
SEE ALSO: Barbershop Books is using barbershops to inspire young black boys to readOne standout finalist on this year's list is Danez Smith and their sophomore poetry collection Don't Call Us Dead. The book starts with a breathtaking 25-page long poem about boys murdered by the police titled "Summer, Somewhere," which imagines a paradise afterlife for those who were killed. Part elegy for those who were murdered, part indictment to American culture, "Somewhere, Summer" is a must read poem in 2017, and Don't Call Us Deadis a book to watch.
And one upset that may shock readers is the exclusion of Angie Thomas' novel The Hate U Givefrom the finalist list, after the novel was longlisted for the award in young people's literature earlier in the fall. Thomas' novel follows Starr Carter, a girl who must find her voice and fight injustice after being the sole witness when a police officer shoots and kills her friend Khalil at a traffic stop. The book has been a favorite in the YA community since it debuted (MashReadscalled it the one book you need to read this year), and is currently being adapted into a movie starring Amandla Stenberg, Regina Hall, and Common, amongst others.
You can check out the full list of finalists below, and stay tuned for when the National Book Foundation announces the winners on Nov. 15.
Fiction
Dark at the Crossingby Elliot Ackerman
The Leaversby Lisa Ko
Pachinkoby Min Jin Lee
Her Body and Other Parties: Storiesby Carmen Maria Machado
Sing, Unburied, Singby Jesmyn Ward
Nonfiction
Never Caught: The Washington's Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judgeby Erica Armstrong Dunbar
The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape Americaby Frances FitzGerald
The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBIby David Grann
Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean
Poetry
Half-Light: Collected Poems 1965-2016 by Frank Bidart
The Book of Endingsby Leslie Harrison
WHEREASby Layli Long Soldier
In the Language of My Captorby Shane McCrae
Don't Call Us Deadby Danez Smith
Young People's Literature
What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold
Far from the Treeby Robin Benway
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughterby Erika L. Sánchez
Clayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Williams-Garcia
American Street by Ibi Zoboi
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