15 Of The 20 Finalists For The National Book Award Are Women

It's always an exciting day for book lovers everywhere when the finalists for the National Book Awards are announced. This prestigious award, which is given to writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people's literature categories celebrates some of the best, and most relevant writing of the year. The finalists of the National Book Awards are chosen by a panel of five judges for each category, and this year they have gone with some huge picks; and out of the 20 authors nominated for the awards, this year's group includes a whopping 15 women.

It's a huge moment for highlighting diversity, which is reflected throughout the list of finalists. Not only are a majority women, but there are a range of non-white authors telling Own Voices and diverse stories. Interestingly, too, there are more than a few debut authors on the final list this year, including Lisa Ko with The Leavers, Erika L. Sánchez with I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter and Ibi Zoboi with American Street. To check out the full list of finalists, keep reading below. And make sure to make room on your year end TBR list because these are just some of the year's biggest books that you definitely don't want to miss.

Finalists for Fiction

• Dark at the Crossing by Elliot Ackerman
• The Leavers by Lisa Ko
• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
• Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
• Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Finalists for Nonfiction

• Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
• The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America by Frances FitzGerald
• The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen
• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
• Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean

Finalists for Poetry

• Half-light: Collected Poems 1965-2016 by Frank Bidart
• The Book of Endings by Leslie Harrison
• WHEREAS by Layli Long Soldier
• In the Language of My Captor by Shane McCrae
• Don't Call Us Dead: Poems by Danez Smith

Finalists for Young People's Literature

• What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold
• Far from the Tree by Robin Benway
• I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez
• Clayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Williams-Garcia
• American Street by Ibi Zoboi