The short list for one of America's top book prizes is out. The National Book Foundation announced 25 finalists for the 2026 National Book Awards on Tuesday, Oct. 6. There are five books in each of five categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature and young people's literature.

The fiction finalists are Hannah Lillith Assadi's Paradiso 17, Edwidge Danticat's Dèy, Julián Delgado Lopera's Pretend You're Dead and I Carry You, Valeria Luiselli's Beginning Middle End and Morgan Thomas's debut novel, Mad Eden. Danticat's book follows a Haitian American real estate agent in Miami who survives a mass shooting.

In nonfiction, the list includes Colin Asher's The Midnight Special, about music made by prisoners, and Sara Nović's memoir Mother Tongue. Poetry finalists include Victoria Chang and Fady Joudah, whose Exhibit G is about Gaza. Karl Ove Knausgaard's The School of Night is a translated literature finalist. Young people's finalists include Tae Keller and the team of David Levithan and Gabriel Duckels.

Judges picked the finalists from long lists released in September. Publishers sent in 1,912 books this year, the foundation said. Fourteen of the finalists' authors and translators had been honored by the foundation before.

Winners get $10,000, a bronze medal and a statue. Each finalist gets $1,000 and a bronze medal. In the translation category, the prize is split between author and translator.

The awards are now in their 77th year. At this year's ceremony, author Salman Rushdie will receive a medal for lifetime contribution to American letters.

Where to watch: Winners will be named at the ceremony in New York on Wednesday, Nov. 18. The foundation will stream it on its website and YouTube. Finalists read from their work at NYU Skirball on Nov. 17, which will also be streamed.

What we know: The 25 finalists are set.
What we don't: Who wins on Nov. 18.