The National Book Awards revealed its 2026 fiction longlist, with 10 books contending for the annual literary honor.
Louise Erdrich was longlisted for Python’s Kiss; the author won the National Book Award in 2012 for The Round House and was a finalist for the prize in 1999 for The Birchbark House and again in 2001 for The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse.
Edwidge Danticat, previously a finalist for Krik? Krak! and Brother, I’m Dying, was nominated this year for Dèy. Marlon James made this year’s longlist for The Disappearers; he was a finalist for the prize in 2019 for Black Leopard, Red Wolf.
Hannah Lillith Assadi was longlisted for Paradiso 17, as were Kimberly Blaeser for Red Ants, Julián Delgado Lopera for Pretend You’re Dead and I Carry You, Valeria Luiselli for Beginning Middle End, Alexander Maksik for Passengers, Kenan Orhan for The Renovation, and Morgan Thomas for Mad Eden.
The judges for this year’s prize are Matt Bell, Caro De Robertis, Danielle King, Akhil Sharma, and Diane Wilson.
Previous winners of the National Book Award for fiction include Ralph Ellison for Invisible Man, Thomas Pynchon for Gravity’s Rainbow, Ha Jin for Waiting, and Percival Everett for James.
The finalists for this year’s prize will be announced on Oct. 6, with the winner revealed at a ceremony in New York on Nov. 18.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
