National Book Awards 2026 for fiction

Hannah Lillith Assadi, Paradiso 17
Knopf / Penguin Random House

Kimberly Blaeser, Red Ants
Counterpoint Press

Edwidge Danticat, Dèy
Knopf / Penguin Random House

Julián Delgado Lopera, Pretend You’re Dead and I Carry You
Liveright / W. W. Norton & Company

Louise Erdrich, Python’s Kiss
Harper / HarperCollins Publishers

Marlon James, The Disappearers
Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House

Valeria Luiselli, Beginning Middle End
Knopf / Penguin Random House

Alexander Maksik, Passengers
Europa Editions

Kenan Orhan, The Renovation
Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers

Morgan Thomas, Mad Eden
MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers

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With this list we are starting to see the books that are popping up in multiple places. Those are the ones I want to make sure not to miss. For me those are:

The Disappearers by Marlon James—recently called the book of the century by NYTimes.

The Renovation by Kenan Orhan (also listed for Booker Prize)

Paradiso 17 by Hannah Lillith Assadi (also listed for Women’s Prize)

Thanks, @Anne_Glasgow! Several of these are on my radar. The Disappearers has been showing up everywhere. Dèy is another one I’ve become aware of, as is Beginning Middle End. Python’s Kiss is supposed to be amazing, too, but I just don’t seem to enjoy short stories. I’m unfamiliar with the others.

Thanks for the list. I bought Paradiso 17, reserved Beginning Middle End and added Python’s Kiss to my Libby list. Some of the others I would have undoubtably read in the past, but are just too heavy for me to read right now.

My reaction to short stories tends to be, “where’s the rest of the story?” That said, I thought I’d give the Erdrich a chance as bedtime reading in hopes of breaking my recent pattern of reading my book till 3 or 4am.

I very much want to read Dey, The Disappearers, and Beginning Middle End but I’ve now detoured to Texas Book Festival authors so I’ll have to return to these later. I did read Python’s Kiss and agree that short stories are often unsatisfying. There was only one story in this collection that really worked for me but others have been very complementary of this book. I’m just not a very appreciative short story reader.

I agree @Rannie that short stories often seem incomplete or they have a purpose that passes me by entirely.

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