NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� bout his near-fatal stabbing, 鈥淜nife,鈥� and Percival Everett's revisionist historical novel, 鈥淛ames," are among the finalists for the 75th annual National Book Awards. Others nominated include author-filmmaker Miranda July for her explicit novel on middle age, 鈥淎ll Fours,鈥� and the celebrated Canadian poet Anne Carson for 鈥淲rong Norma.鈥�
On Tuesday, the announced finalists in fiction, nonfiction, young people's literature, poetry and books in translation. Judges in each category pared long lists of 10 unveiled last month to five final selections. Winners will be announced during a Nov. 20 dinner ceremony in Manhattan, when honorary prizes will be presented to and publisher-activist W. Paul Coates.
In fiction, nominees besides 鈥淛ames鈥� and 鈥淎ll Fours鈥� are Pemi Aguda's debut story collection, 鈥淕hostroots": Kaveh Akbar's debut novel, 鈥淢artyr!,鈥� Hisham Matar's 鈥淢y Friends,鈥� a novel by the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir 鈥淭he Return.鈥�
Four of the five fiction books, including 鈥淛ames,鈥� were published by Penguin Random House. Everett's novel, which re-tells 鈥淭he Adventures of Huckleberry Finn鈥� from the perspective of the enslaved man Mark Twain had named Jim, is also a Booker Prize finalist and among the year's most acclaimed works. Among the books on the fiction long list that judges left out of the final choices was Rachel Kushner's 鈥淐reation Lake,鈥� another Booker finalist.
Rushdie's 鈥淜nife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder鈥� is a nonfiction finalist, along with Jason De Le贸n's 鈥淪oldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling,鈥� Eliza Griswold's 鈥淐ircle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church,鈥� Kate Manne's 鈥淯nshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia鈥� and Deborah Jackson Taffa's 鈥淲hiskey Tender.鈥�
鈥淜nife鈥� is the first National Book Award nomination for the 77-year-old Rushdie, who was living overseas and ineligible at the time he published the Booker Prize-winning 鈥淢idnight's Children's鈥� and other works. A native of India who lived for years in London, Rushdie became a U.S. citizen in 2016. The prolific Everett, author of more than 20 books and the recipient of several awards, is also a first-time nominee.
The poetry list includes Carson's 鈥淲rong Norma,鈥� Fady Joudah's 鈥�(...),鈥� m.s. RedCherries' debut collection 鈥渕other,鈥� Diane Seuss' 鈥淢odern Poetry鈥� and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha's 鈥淪omething About Living.鈥� In young people's literature, the finalists are Violet Duncan's 鈥淏uffalo Dreamer,鈥� Josh Galarza's 鈥淭he Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky,鈥� Erin Entrada Kelly's 鈥淭he First State of Being,鈥� Shifa Saltagi Safadi's 鈥淜areem Between鈥� and Angela Shant茅's 鈥淭he Unboxing of a Black Girl.鈥�
Two books originally written in Arabic are on the translated works list: Bothayna Al-Essa's 鈥淭he Book Censor鈥檚 Library,鈥� translated by Ranya Abdelrahman and Sawad Hussain, and Samar Yazbek's 鈥淲here the Wind Calls Home,鈥� translated by Leri Price. The other finalists are Linnea Axelsson's 鈥溍哾nan,鈥� translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel, Fiston Mwanza Mujila's 鈥淭he Villain鈥檚 Dance,鈥� translated from the French by Roland Glasser, and Y谩ng Shu膩ng-z菒's 鈥淭aiwan Travelogue,鈥� translated from the Mandarin Chinese by Lin King."
Judging panels in each category made their selections from hundreds of submissions, with publishers nominating more than 1,900 books in all.
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This story corrects the spelling of Hisham Matar and the title of the book to "My Friends.''
Hillel Italie, The Associated Press
