Books by Minneapolis' Kate DiCamillo, Graywolf Press on shortlist for National Book Award

"Raymie Nightingale" a finalist in young people's literature; "Look," by Solmaz Sharif, a finalist in poetry.

October 6, 2016 at 4:24PM
(The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Kate DiCamillo. Star Tribune file photo.
Kate DiCamillo. Star Tribune file photo. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The finalists for this year's National Book Awards were announced this morning, live-streamed on the Facebook page of the New Yorker magazine. The announcement was moved up a week so as not to conflict with the Nobel Prize for Literature announcement, which was moved back.

Minnesota writer Kate DiCamillo is a finalist in young people's literature for her novel, "Raymie Nightingale," and a book published by Graywolf Press, "Look," by Solmaz Sharif, is a finalist in poetry. Graywolf had three books on the long list. "Sachiko," a novel by Minneapolis writer Caren Stelson and published by Carolrhoda Books, was also on the long list for young people's literature.

DiCamillo was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2001 for "The Tiger Rising."

Also on the short list: Colson Whitehead, for his novel "The Underground Railroad." Whitehead will be in the Twin Cities on Nov. 3 for Talking Volumes.

The winners will be announced at a gala event on Nov. 16 in New York City, which will be live-streamed on the website of the National Book Foundation, www.nationalbook.org.

Here are the finalists:

Finalists for fiction

●Chris Bachelder, "The Throwback Special " (Norton)

● Paulette Jiles, "News of the World" (William Morrow/HarperCollins)

● Karan Mahajan, "The Association of Small Bombs" (Viking/Penguin Random House)

● Colson Whitehead, "The Underground Railroad" (Doubleday/Penguin Random House)

● Jacqueline Woodson, "Another Brooklyn" (Amistad/HarperCollinsPublishers)

Finalists for nonfiction

● Arlie Russell Hochschild, "Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right" (The New Press)

● Ibram X. Kendi, "Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America" (Nation)

●Viet Thanh Nguyen, "Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War" (Harvard)

●Andrés Reséndez, "The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

●Heather Ann Thompson, "Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy" (Pantheon/Penguin Random House)

Finalists for poetry

●Daniel Borzutzky, "The Performance of Becoming Human" (Brooklyn Arts)

● Rita Dove, "Collected Poems 1974–2004" (W. W. Norton & Company)

●Peter Gizzi, "Archeophonics" (Wesleyan)

●Jay Hopler, "The Abridged History of Rainfall" (McSweeney's)

● Solmaz Sharif, "Look" (Graywolf Press)

Finalists for young people's literature

● Kate DiCamillo, "Raymie Nightingale" (Candlewick)

●John Lewis, Andrew Aydin & Nate Powell, "March: Book Three" (Top Shelf Productions/IDW Publishing)

●Grace Lin, "When the Sea Turned to Silver," (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette Book Group)

● Jason Reynolds, "Ghost" (Atheneum Books for Young Readers / Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing)

● Nicola Yoon, "The Sun Is Also a Star" (Delacorte)

about the writer

about the writer

Laurie Hertzel

Senior Editor

Freelance writer and former Star Tribune books editor Laurie Hertzel is at lauriehertzel@gmail.com.

See More