US National Book Awards 2022 Longlist: Poetry

The titles on the National Book Awards’ newly released poetry longlist include two debut poetry collections.

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

Third of Five Categories’ Longlists

The United States’ National Book Foundation—with a prize ceremony set for November 16—today (September 15) continues announcing its longlists for the 2022 National Book Awards. As this program likes to do, it’s parsing the announcements in five categories across three days.

Finalists—the shortlisted entries—are to be named October 4.

The longlist provided today to members of the news media is for the National Book Award for poetry.

Three of this year’s longlisted poets are past National Book Award-honored writers:

Jay Hopler was a poetry finalist in 2016
Sharon Olds was a poetry finalist in 2002
Jenny Xie was a poetry finalist in 2018

This year’s longlist includes a MacArthur Fellow, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and three Whiting Award winners. One of the books represented here comes from a university press and seven come from independent publishers, including two publishers appearing on the National Book Award longlists for the first time–Song Cave and YesYes Books.

The Longlist includes two debut poetry collections.

Publishers submitted a total of 260 books for the 2022 National Book Award for poetry.

The judges for poetry are Kwame Dawes (chair), Juan Felipe Herrera, Keetje Kuipers, January Gill O’Neil, and Mai Der Vang.

Poetry 2022 Longlist

Writer	Title	Publisher / Imprint
Rio Cortez	Golden Ax	Penguin Random House / Penguin Books
Allison Adelle Hedge Coke	Look at This Blue	Coffee House Press
Jay Hopler	Still Life	McSweeney’s
John Keene	Punks: New & Selected Poems	Song Cave
Sharon Olds	Balladz	Penguin Random House / Alfred A. Knopf
Roger Reeves	Best Barbarian	WW Norton & Company
Sherry Shenoda	Mummy Eaters	University of Nebraska Press
Quincy Troupe	Duende	Seven Stories Press
Shelley Wong	As She Appears	YesYes Books
Jenny Xie	The Rupture Tense	Graywolf Press

As always, the jury’s decisions are made independently of the National Book Foundation staff and board of directors and deliberations are strictly confidential.

This is the third of five categories. Coming up:

The National Book Award longlist in in nonfiction
The National Book Award longlist in fiction

This is Publishing Perspectives’ 163rd report on awards-related news published in the 171 days since our 2022 operations began on January 3.

National Book Awards trophies. Image: NBA

More from Publishing Perspectives on the National Book Awards in the United States is here and more on the huge field of international book awards and prizes is here. More from us on the United States’ market is here.

More from us on the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on international book publishing is here.

About the Author

Porter Anderson

Porter Anderson is a non-resident fellow of Trends Research & Advisory, and he has been named International Trade Press Journalist of the Year in London Book Fair's International Excellence Awards. He is Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives. He formerly was Associate Editor for The FutureBook at London's The Bookseller. Anderson was for more than a decade a senior producer and anchor with CNN.com, CNN International, and CNN USA. As an arts critic (National Critics Institute), he was with The Village Voice, the Dallas Times Herald, and the Tampa Tribune, now the Tampa Bay Times. He co-founded The Hot Sheet, a newsletter for authors, which now is owned and operated by Jane Friedman.