National Book Award longlists released for young people’s literature and works in translation

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This article was published 13/09/2023 (1101 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEW YORK (AP) — The National Book Award longlist for young people’s literature features a range of grownup topics, from the deadly famine in Ukraine in the 1930s to the 1963 March on Washington to the underpinnings of the Internet.

The list of 10 was announced Wednesday by the National Book Foundation, which also released 10 nominees in literature in translation, with original languages including Korean, Arabic and French.

The lists, along with those for fiction, nonfiction and poetry to be announced later this week, will be narrowed next month to five in each category. The winners will be revealed during a Manhattan ceremony Nov. 15. Drew Barrymore had been scheduled to host but was dropped this week by the foundation after she resumed taping her talk show in the midst of the Hollywood writers’ strike.

In young people’s literature, books include Katherine Marsh’s “The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine,” Dan Nott’s graphic novel “Hidden Systems: Water, Electricity, the Internet, and the Secrets Behind the Systems We Use Every Day” and Yohuru Williams’ and Michael G. Long’s “More Than a Dream: The Radical March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,” which draws upon images and reporting from Black newspapers.

Judges also cited Huda Fahmy’s graphic novel “Huda F Cares?”, Dan Santat’s graphic memoir “A First Time for Everything,” Kenneth M. Cadow’s “Gather,” Alyson Derrick’s “Forget Me Not” and Vashti Harrison’s “Big” and Betty C. Tang’s “Parachute Kids.”

In translation, Juan Cárdenas was nominated for “Devil of the Provinces,” translated from the Spanish by Lizzie Davis; Bora Chung was cited for “Cursed Bunny,” translated from the Korean by Anton Hur; and David Diop for “Beyond the Door of No Return,” translated from the French by Sam Taylor. Jenny Erpenbeck is a nominee for “Kairos,” translated from the German by Michael Hofmann; Stênio Gardel for “The Words That Remain,” translated from the Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato; Khaled Khalifa for “No One Prayed Over Their Graves,” translated from the Arabic by Leri Price; and Fernanda Melchor for “This Is Not Miami,” translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes.

The other translation nominees are Pilar Quintana’s “Abyss,” translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman; Astrid Roemer’s “On a Woman’s Madness,” translated from the Dutch by Lucy Scott; and Mohamed Mbougar Sarr’s “The Most Secret Memory of Men,” translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud.