The longlist for the National Book Award for poetry is out, with ten writers in the mix for the prestigious literary award.
Monica Youn was nominated for her collection From From. Youn was a finalist for the prize in 2010 for Ignatz, and made the longlist in the category in 2016 for Blackacre.
The other nine nominees are all new to the National Book Awards. Craig Santos Perez made the longlist for his experimental collection from unincorporated territory [åmot], as did John Lee Clark for How to Communicate and Oliver de la Paz for The Diaspora Sonnets.
Charif Shanahan was nominated for Trace Evidence, his follow-up to the Lambda Award finalist collection Into Each Room We Enter Without Knowing. Utah Poet Laureate Paisley Rekdal made the longlist for West: A Translation, along with Annelyse Gelman for Vexations.
Evie Shockley, who was a Pulitzer finalist in 2018 for semiautomatic, earned a finalist spot for suddenly we, as did José Olivarez for Promises of Gold and Brandon Som for Tripas.
The judges for this year’s prize are Rick Barot, Heid E. Erdrich, Jonathan Farmer, Raina J. León, and Solmaz Sharif. The longlist for the award will be winnowed down into a shortlist, which will be revealed on Oct. 3. The winner will be announced at the National Book Awards ceremony in New York on Nov. 15.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
