Here are the finalists for the 2026 National Book Awards

Three-time National Book Award finalist Edwidge Danticat and debut novelist Morgan Thomas are up for the fiction prize. Nonfiction books cover the prison system and music, and queer parenthood.

<img src='https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2000x1084+0+18/resize/2000x1084!/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F83%2F73%2F3a307a1b4a229daf6ff87a9f126f%2Fcopy-of-6-book-covers-5.jpg' alt='undefined'/><p>Three-time National Book Award finalist Edwidge Danticat and debut novelist Morgan Thomas are up for the fiction prize. Nonfiction books cover the prison system and music, and queer parenthood.</p><img src='https://media.npr.org/include/images/tracking/npr-rss-pixel.png?story=nx-s1-5991463' />