The finalists for this year’s National Book Awards have been announced. Among the 25 nominees are novelists Rabih Alameddine and Megha Majumdar as well as journalists and Omar El Akkad, who also writes.

The winners of each category will be announced on Nov. 19 at an event in New York City. Also being honored are two lifetime achievement winners: author and Syracuse University professor George Saunders and author, cultural critic and Rutgers University-New Brunswick professor Roxane Gay.

Nine of this year’s nominees have received previous recognitions from the National Book Foundation, the organization behind the National Book Awards. Alameddine is a previous finalist for his 2014 novel An Unnecessary Woman, while Majumdar was longlisted in 2020 for her debut novel, A Burning. Poet Patricia Smith was a finalist in 2008 for her collection Blood Dazzler.

Danish author Solvej Balle was longlisted for the translated literature prize in 2024, along with her translator Barbara J. Haveland. Authors Kyle Lukoff, Amber McBride and Ibi Zoboi are all previous finalists in the young people’s literature category. Fiction authors Karen Russell and Bryan Washington are previous winners of the organization’s 5 Under 35 honors.

All of this year’s nonfiction finalists are first-time honorees in these prizes.

The ceremony will be streamed on the National Book Awards’ website.