By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
See also: The National Book Awards 2021 Longlist for Translated Literature, for Young People’s Literature, for Fiction, and for Nonfiction.
Publishers Submitted 290 Titles in Poetry
The final longlist from the National Book Foundation for the 2021 National Book Awards in the United States is a 10-title jury selection of work in Poetry.
Perhaps the most interesting element of this list for longtime National Book Awards followers is that nine of the 10 poets on this year’s longlist are first-time honorees in the National Book Foundation program. Forrest Gander is the only one of the group who has been recognized earlier in this awards program, an d that was in 2018 when his collection Be With was longlisted.
Two Pulitzer Prize-winners are in the 2021 longlist, as are two Whiting Award-winners.
Independent publishers have produced nine of the 10 longlisted titles, and the 10th is from Yale University Press. Wave Books has published two of the 10 longlisted titles.
Publishers placed a total 290 books into competition in the Poetry category this time.
As Publishing Perspectives readers know, finalists in all five catetories are to be named on October 5, and winners in all categories will be announced live at the National Book Awards Ceremony on November 17.
Jurors in this category of long subtitles this year are A. Van Jordan (chair), Don Mee Choi, Natalie Diaz, Matthea Harvey, and Ilya Kaminsky.
Poetry 2021 Longlist
| Author | Title | Publisher / Imprint |
| Threa Almontaser | The Wild Fox of Yemen | Graywolf Press |
| Baba Badji | Ghost Letters | Parlor Press |
| Desiree C. Bailey | What Noise Against the Cane | Yale University Press |
| CM Burroughs | Master Suffering | Tupelo Press |
| Andrés Cerpa | The Vault | Alice James Books |
| Martin Espada | Floaters | WW Norton & Company |
| Forrest Gander | Twice Alive | New Directions |
| Douglas Kearney | Sho | Wave Books |
| Hoa Nguyen | A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure | Wave Books |
| Jackie Wang | The Sunflower Cast a Spell to Save Us From the Void | Nightboat Books |
As always, the jury’s decisions are made independently of the National Book Foundation staff and board of directors and deliberations are strictly confidential.
More from Publishing Perspectives on the National Book Awards is here, and on awards programs in general is here. More from us on nonfiction is here.
More on the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on international book publishing is here.