Charles Yu, Luis Alberto Urrea, and Ibi Zoboi are among the judges for the 2021 National Book Awards.
The National Book Foundation announced the list of judges in a news release Wednesday. “The judging process for the National Book Awards is a significant commitment, and we have full confidence that this year's expert panelists will make their decisions with vigorous discernment,” said the foundation’s interim executive director, Jordan Smith. “Their participation will have a long-lasting impact on writers, the literary community, and readers everywhere.”
Yu, who won the National Book Award last year for Interior Chinatown, will serve on the fiction judging panel, along with Urrea, who will chair the committee. Novelists Alan Michael Parker and Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, along with librarian Emily Pullen, will round out the fiction panel.
The nonfiction panel will be chaired by author Nell Painter (Old in Art School), along with writers Eula Biss, Aaron John Curtis, Kate Tuttle, and Jerald Walker.
Academic Cathryn Mercier will chair the young people’s literature committee, which will include authors Zoboi, Pablo Cartaya, Traci Chee, and Leslie Connor.
The longlists for the awards will be announced in September, with the shortlists coming the following month. The winners will be revealed at a ceremony on Nov. 17. A full list of judges is available on the National Book Foundations’ website.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
