This week, The New Yorker is announcing the longlists for the 2024 National Book Awards, beginning with Young People’s Literature and Translated Literature. Check back on Thursday and Friday for the Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction lists. Sign up for the Books & Fiction newsletter to receive each 2024 longlist.
Young People’s Literature
The titles on this year’s longlist interweave stories of self-acceptance with explorations of broader issues. The list includes two début young adult novels, one writer who has been previously honored by the National Book Awards—Randy Ribay, the author of “Everything We Never Had”—and a remarkable five novels in verse.
The judges for the category this year are Rose Brock, the co-founder of the North Texas Teen Book Festival; Huda Fahmy, whose novel “Huda F Cares?” was a National Book Award Finalist in 2023; Leah Johnson, the author of the novel “You Should See Me in a Crown” and the founder of Loudmouth Books; Mike Jung, the author of the novel “Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities”; and Brein Lopez, the general manager of Children’s Book World in Los Angeles.
Translated Literature
The ten books on this year’s longlist were originally published in six different languages: Arabic, Danish, French, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and Swedish. Several consider political violence and memory. Others use satire to invert reality. One author, Samar Yazbek, and three translators—Leri Price, Sophie Hughes, and Heather Cleary—have been recognized by the National Book Awards before.
The judges for the category this year are Aron Aji, who directs the Translation programs at the University of Iowa; Jennifer Croft, a translator and the author of the novel “The Extinction of Irena Rey”; Jhumpa Lahiri, whose most recent book, “Roman Stories,” was originally written in Italian and partly translated by the author; Gary Lovely, the store manager of Prologue Bookshop and publisher of Harpoon Books; and Julia Sanches, who translates literature from Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan into English.
