September 12, 2025, 11:00am

Today, the National Book Foundation announced the longlist for the 2025 National Book Award for Fiction. Then ten titles were selected from a pool of 434 books submitted for consideration by their publishers. This year’s judges for Fiction are Rumaan Alam (Chair), Debra Magpie Earling, Attica Locke, Elizabeth McCracken, and Cody Morrison.

The finalists in all categories will be announced on Tuesday, October 7, and the winners revealed at the 76th National Book Awards Ceremony on November 19.

In the meantime, here’s the longlist:

Rabih Alameddine, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)
Grove Press / Grove Atlantic

Susan Choi, Flashlight
Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers

Angela Flournoy, The Wilderness
Mariner Books / HarperCollins Publishers

Jonas Hassen Khemiri, The Sisters
Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers

Megha Majumdar, A Guardian and a Thief
Knopf / Penguin Random House

Kevin Moffett, Only Son
McSweeney’s

Karen Russell, The Antidote
Knopf / Penguin Random House

Ethan Rutherford, North Sun: Or, the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther
A Strange Object / Deep Vellum Publishing

Bryan Washington, Palaver
Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers

Joy Williams, The Pelican Child
Knopf / Penguin Random House