National Book Award 2014 nominees for fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people's literature are announced

The longlists for the 2014 National Book Award were recently released.

The National Book Award is given out by the National Book Foundation in November. The shortlist for each category will be announced on Oct. 15 and author Daniel Handler (also known as writer Lemony Snicket) will be hosting the awards ceremony on Nov. 19. Last year’s National Book Award winners were “The Good Lord Bird,” by James McBride for the fiction category and “The Unwinding,” by George Packer for nonfiction, while “Incarnadine,” by Mary Szybist took the poetry prize and “The Thing About Luck,” by Cynthia Kadohata won the young people’s literature prize.

For nonfiction, the works that made the longlist were “Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?” by Roz Chast, "The Heathen School,” by John Demos, “No Good Men Among the Living,” by Anand Gopal, "The Mantle of Command,” by Nigel Hamilton, “The Innovators,” by Walter Isaacson, “Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh,” by John Lahr, “Age of Ambition,” by Evan Osnos, “When Paris Went Dark,” by Ronald C. Rosbottom, “Nature's God,” by Matthew Stewart, and “The Meaning of Human Existence,” by Edward O. Wilson.

For fiction, the works were “An Unnecessary Woman,” by Rabih Alameddine, “The UnAmericans,” by Molly Antopol, “Wolf in White Van,” by John Darnielle, “All the Light We Cannot See,” by Anthony Doerr, “Redeployment,” by Phil Klay, “Station Eleven,” by Emily St. John Mandel, “Thunderstruck & Other Stories,” by Elizabeth McCracken, "Orfeo,” by Richard Powers, “Lila,” by Marilynne Robinson, and “Some Luck,” by Jane Smiley. 

The books that could take the poetry prize are “Roget's Illusion,” by Linda Bierds, “A Several World,” by Brian Blanchfield, “Faithful and Virtuous Night,” by Louise Glück, “Gabriel: A Poem,” by Edward Hirsch, “Second Childhood,” by Fanny Howe, “This Blue,” by Maureen N. McLane, “The Feel Trio,” by Fred Moten, “Citizen: An American Lyric,” by Claudia Rankine, “The Road to Emmaus,” by Spencer Reece, and “Collected Poems,” by Mark Strand. 

Meanwhile, those up for the young people’s literature award are “The Impossible Knife of Memory,” by Laurie Halse Anderson, “Girls Like Us,” by Gail Giles, “Skink – No Surrender,” by Carl Hiaasen, “Greenglass House,” by Kate Milford, “Threatened,” by Eliot Schrefer, “The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights,” by Steve Sheinkin, “100 Sideways Miles,” by Andrew Smith, “Noggin,” by John Corey Whaley, “Revolution: The Sixties Trilogy, Book Two,” by Deborah Wiles, and "Brown Girl Dreaming," by Jacqueline Woodson.

Be sure to follow the links above to check out our reviews of various titles that are up for the prizes.