National Book Award for Nonfiction · 2025 · Winner
National Book Award for Nonfiction
2025 Winner
2025 Shortlist & Longlist
Complete History
2020s
- 2025One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This — Omar El Akkad
- 2024Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling — Jason De León
- 2023The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of US History — Ned Blackhawk
- 2022South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation — Imani Perry
- 2021All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake — Tiya Miles
- 2020The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X — Les Payne
2010s
- 2019The Yellow House: A Memoir — Sarah M. Broom
- 2018The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke — Jeffrey C. Stewart
- 2017The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia — Masha Gessen
- 2016Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America — Ibram X. Kendi
- 2015Between the World and Me — Ta-Nehisi Coates
- 2014Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China — Evan Osnos
- 2013The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America — George Packer
- 2012Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity — Katherine Boo
- 2011The Swerve: How the World Became Modern — Stephen Greenblatt
- 2010Just Kids — Patti Smith
About the National Book Award for Nonfiction
The National Book Award for Nonfiction is one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the United States, given annually by the National Book Foundation to American authors for distinguished works of nonfiction. The award has been given in various forms since 1950 and in its current configuration since 1983 after a reorganization of the National Book Awards. Prize money of $10,000 goes to the winner, with $1,000 to each finalist. The award recognizes exceptional nonfiction of all kinds — memoir, reportage, history, science writing, criticism, and more — with the stipulation that the book be written by a US citizen and published in the US between December 1 of the previous year and November 30 of the award year. The National Book Foundation announces a longlist in September, a shortlist (finalists) in October, and winners in November at the National Book Awards ceremony in New York City. The award has recognized landmark works including Patti Smith's Just Kids, Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me, and Masha Gessen's The Future Is History. Unlike the Pulitzer, the National Book Award for Nonfiction is open to any genre of nonfiction, making it the broadest recognition for American nonfiction prose.
Frequently Asked Questions
- US citizens who publish a nonfiction book in the US between December 1 of the previous year and November 30 of the award year are eligible.
- The winner receives $10,000 and a bronze medal. Each finalist receives $1,000 and a bronze medal.
- Winners are announced in November at the National Book Awards ceremony in New York City. Longlists are announced in September and shortlists (finalists) in October.
- Five finalists are named each year, drawn from a longlist of ten books announced earlier in the season.
- No. Works in translation are eligible for the separate National Book Award for Translated Literature. The Nonfiction award is for books originally written in English by US citizens.
- A panel of five judges — authors, critics, and scholars — deliberate independently of the National Book Foundation and select the winner from among the five finalists.
- Some authors have won the broader National Book Awards in multiple categories, but repeat wins specifically in Nonfiction are uncommon.