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The National Book Awards 2015

Awards

The National Book Awards 2015

Winners of the 2015 National Book Award in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry and Young People's Literature were announced at the 66th National Book Awards Benefit Dinner and Ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on November 18, 2015.

Established in 1950, the National Book Award is an American literary prize given to writers by writers and administered by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization. More information about the National Book Awards can be found here.
 


 

2015 Winners

 

Fiction
FORTUNE SMILES by Adam Johnson (Random House/Penguin Random House)

Nonfiction
BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Spiegel and Grau/Penguin Random House)

Poetry
VOYAGE OF THE SABLE VENUS by Robin Coste Lewis (Alfred A. Knopf/Penguin Random House)

Young People’s Literature
CHALLENGER DEEP by Neal Shusterman (HarperTeen/HarperCollins Children’s Books)

 


 

2015 Finalists

 

Fiction

  • REFUND by Karen E. Bender (Soft Skull/Counterpoint Press)
  • THE TURNER HOUSE by Angela Flournoy (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
  • FATES AND FURIES by Lauren Groff (Riverhead Books/Penguin Random House)
  • FORTUNE SMILES by Adam Johnson (Random House/Penguin Random House)
  • A LITTLE LIFE by Hanya Yanagihara (Doubleday/Penguin Random House)

Nonfiction

  • BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Spiegel and Grau/Penguin Random House)
  • HOLD STILL: A Memoir with Photographs by Sally Mann (Little, Brown/Hachette Book Group)
  • THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery (Atria/Simon and Schuster)
  • IF THE OCEANS WERE INK: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran by Carla Power (Henry Holt and Company/Macmillan)
  • ORDINARY LIGHT: A Memoir by Tracy K. Smith (Alfred A. Knopf/Penguin Random House)

Poetry

  • CATALOG OF UNABASHED GRATITUDE by Ross Gay (Pitt Poetry Series/University of Pittsburgh Press)
  • HOW TO BE DRAWN by Terrance Hayes (Penguin Books/Penguin Random House)
  • VOYAGE OF THE SABLE VENUS by Robin Coste Lewis (Alfred A. Knopf/Penguin Random House)
  • BRIGHT DEAD THINGS by Ada Limón (Milkweed Editions)
  • ELEGY FOR A BROKEN MACHINE by Patrick Phillips (Alfred A. Knopf/Penguin Random House)

Young People’s Literature

  • THE THING ABOUT JELLYFISH by Ali Benjamin (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette Book Group)
  • BONE GAP by Laura Ruby (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins Children’s Books)
  • MOST DANGEROUS: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin (Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group)
  • CHALLENGER DEEP by Neal Shusterman (HarperTeen/HarperCollins Children’s Books)
  • NIMONA by Noelle Stevenson (HarperTeen/HarperCollins Children’s Books)

 


 

2015 Longlist

 

Fiction

  • A CURE FOR SUICIDE by Jesse Ball (Pantheon Books/Penguin Random House)
  • DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY by Bill Clegg (Scout Press/Simon & Schuster)
  • REFUND by Karen E. Bender (Soft Skull/Counterpoint Press)
  • THE TURNER HOUSE by Angela Flournoy (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
  • FATES AND FURIES by Lauren Groff (Riverhead Books/Penguin Random House)
  • FORTUNE SMILES by Adam Johnson (Random House/Penguin Random House)
  • WELCOME TO BRAGGSVILLE by T. Geronimo Johnson (William Morrow/HarperCollins)
  • HONEYDEW by Edith Pearlman (Little, Brown/Hachette Book Group)
  • A LITTLE LIFE by Hanya Yanagihara (Doubleday/Penguin Random House)
  • MISLAID by Nell Zink (The Ecco Press/HarperCollins)

Nonfiction

  • RAIN: A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett (Crown/Penguin Random House)
  • BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Spiegel and Grau/Penguin Random House)
  • MOURNING LINCOLN by Martha Hodes (Yale University Press)
  • HOLD STILL: A Memoir with Photographs by Sally Mann (Little, Brown/Hachette Book Group)
  • THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery (Atria/Simon and Schuster)
  • PARADISE OF THE PACIFIC: Approaching Hawai’i by Susanna Moore (Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Macmillan)
  • LOVE AND OTHER WAYS OF DYING by Michael Paterniti (The Dial Press/Penguin Random House)
  • IF THE OCEANS WERE INK: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran by Carla Power (Henry Holt and Company/Macmillan)
  • ORDINARY LIGHT: A Memoir by Tracy K. Smith (Alfred A. Knopf/Penguin Random House)
  • TRAVELS IN VERMEER: A Memoir by Michael White (Persea Books)

Poetry

  • CATALOG OF UNABASHED GRATITUDE by Ross Gay (Pitt Poetry Series/University of Pittsburgh Press)
  • SCATTERED AT SEA by Amy Gerstler (Penguin Books/Penguin Random House)
  • A STRANGER'S MIRROR: New and Selected Poems, 1994-2014 by Marilyn Hacker (W. W. Norton & Company)
  • HOW TO BE DRAWN by Terrance Hayes (Penguin Books/Penguin Random House)
  • THE BEAUTY by Jane Hirshfield (Alfred A. Knopf/Penguin Random House)
  • VOYAGE OF THE SABLE VENUS by Robin Coste Lewis (Alfred A. Knopf/Penguin Random House)
  • BRIGHT DEAD THINGS by Ada Limón (Milkweed Editions)
  • ELEGY FOR A BROKEN MACHINE by Patrick Phillips (Alfred A. Knopf/Penguin Random House)
  • HEAVEN by Rowan Ricardo Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
  • MISTAKING EACH OTHER FOR GHOSTS by Lawrence Raab (Tupelo Press)

Young People’s Literature

  • SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA by Becky Albertalli (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins Children’s Books)
  • SYMPHONY FOR THE CITY OF THE DEAD: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M. T. Anderson (Candlewick Press)
  • THE THING ABOUT JELLYFISH by Ali Benjamin (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette Book Group)
  • WALK ON EARTH A STRANGER by Rae Carson (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins Children’s Books)
  • THIS SIDE OF WILD: Mutts, Mares, and Laughing Dinosaurs by Gary Paulsen (Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing)
  • BONE GAP by Laura Ruby (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins Children’s Books)
  • X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz with Kekla Magoon (Candlewick Press)
  • MOST DANGEROUS: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin (Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group)
  • CHALLENGER DEEP by Neal Shusterman (HarperTeen/HarperCollins Children’s Books)
  • NIMONA by Noelle Stevenson (HarperTeen/HarperCollins Children’s Books)