The National Book Foundation has released its longlist for the 2026 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, per newyorker.com.
Ten titles spanning fiction, nonfiction, novels in verse and a picture book, make the list.
The longlist, announced this week alongside those for Translated Literature, Poetry, Nonfiction and Fiction, includes works exploring art, storytelling, supernatural encounters and journeys through space and time. Two nominated authors, Elana K. Arnold and David Levithan, have previously been longlisted for the award.
The 10 titles are: The Free Verse Society by Delali Adjoa; Holloway by Elana K. Arnold; The Celestial Seas by T. A. Chan; When Tomorrow Burns by Tae Keller; That Which Feeds Us: A Hawaiian Gothic by Keala Kendall; The Fight of Our Lives: AIDS in America by David Levithan and Gabriel Duckels; The Moon Without Stars by Chanel Miller; Clothes to Make You Smile: Patrick Kelly Designs His Dreams by Eric Darnell Pritchard; Shook by Julian Randall; and Life on the Moon by Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr.
This year’s judging panel for the category comprises Edith Campbell, a founder of the We Are Kid Lit Collective; Brandy Colbert, the panel’s chair and author of Black Birds in the Sky; Tricia Ebarvia, co-founder of the Institute for Racial Equity in Literacy; Jarrett J. Krosoczka, whose graphic memoir Hey, Kiddo was a National Book Award finalist in 2018; and Anne Ursu, whose novel The Real Boy was longlisted for the award in 2013.
Winners of the 77th National Book Awards will be announced in a live ceremony, with further details available through the National Book Foundation.