Honoring the
finest literature
written in America.
For forty-six years, the American Book Awards have recognized the writers whose work enlarges our national conversation. Each autumn, a jury of critics, novelists, poets, and historians reads without brief or bias, and confers the country's most trusted honor in letters — one prize, five categories, ten finalists, an evening in Manhattan.
- Nominations
- Open through March 31
- Longlist
- Announced October 14
- Shortlist
- November 4
- Ceremony
- November 9, Manhattan
- Purse
- $50,000 per laureate
The seal, engraved each year by hand in the Bowery, is affixed to the frontispiece of every finalist's manuscript.
A single, considered
honor for the American
literary year.
The American Book Awardswere founded in 1980 by a small circle of editors, librarians, and booksellers who believed the nation's literature deserved a prize free of publisher subsidy, commercial pressure, and the cadences of the marketplace. Forty-six seasons later, the ambition is unchanged.
Any book of consequence written by an American author, or written by an author residing in America for at least three years, is eligible. Small presses and self-published works are read with equal seriousness. There is no submission fee waivable by influence, and none too high for a first-time author.
Each of the five categories— fiction, poetry, nonfiction, translated literature, and letters to a young reader — is judged by an independent panel of five. Panelists are named publicly the day submissions open, and rotate annually. No panelist may serve twice in a decade.
The purse is $50,000 for each laureate, with an additional $5,000 to each of the four finalists in every category. Every longlisted book is stocked, for one year, in every branch of the eight founding library systems — from Brooklyn to Anchorage.
Five prizes,
one evening.
Five juries. Five books of the year. And, at the discretion of the board, a rare Medal for a Lifetime of Letters — conferred only when the moment demands it.
Novels, story collections, novellas. Any work of imagined narrative published in the season.
Single-author collections, book-length poems, and works of verse without prescription of form.
History, biography, essay, reportage, criticism, memoir, and inquiry in every discipline.
Literature
Fiction and poetry translated into English by an American translator, published in the season.
Young Reader
Books for readers under sixteen — picture books, middle grade, young adult, and works of instruction.
Lifetime of Letters
Awarded by the board, without submission, when an American writer's body of work merits singular recognition.
Every citation, every laureate, every longlisted book — from 1980 to the present, indexed and read.
Guidelines for authors, agents, and publishers. Entry closes March 31 at midnight, Eastern time.
This year's
laureates.
Five books — read by twenty-five jurors across four hundred days — and, in one rare season, a sixth medal conferred by the board.
of Ghosts
A Country
of Ghosts
A novel of migration written in the register of a hymn. Chen's Fujianese seamstress arrives in San Francisco with a suitcase of her mother's threads and, over six decades, stitches an America the country did not know it had. A book that will be read for a hundred years.
Hear the Weather
Twenty-five readers,
four hundred days.
Novelists, poets, translators, critics, and one librarian, seated the day submissions open. Panels are announced publicly and rotate every season.
The 2026 jury includes twenty-one additional readers. The full roster is published as submissions open, in the tradition of the awards since 1980.
See all twenty-five panelists →How a book
becomes a laureate.
Any American book of consequence, from any publisher, at any scale. No fee for first-time authors. No fee for translated works. Four steps, forty weeks, one evening.
Any book published in the calendar year is eligible. Submit through the portal — publishers, agents, and authors alike. First novels and small-press debuts read alongside the rest.
Each panel reads every submission in full. Twenty-five jurors, four hundred days between them. No summaries, no readers' reports — the book itself, in the jurist's hand.
The panels convene, without staff, to produce a longlist of ten in each category. Two weeks later, they meet again to name a shortlist of five, and to deliberate a laureate.
Held at the New York Public Library on the Ninth of November. Citations are read by the jury chairs. The evening concludes with a reading by every laureate — a tradition kept unchanged for forty-six seasons.
The full guidelines run to fourteen pages and have not been meaningfully amended since 1994.
The one American prize where the deliberation is the point, and the winner almost incidental to the reading list it leaves behind.
— The Paris Review, on the 2024 season
The
Reading
Room.
Twelve pages of essays, jury notes, and one book we read this fortnight. Written by the awards' correspondents in New York, Iowa City, and Marfa. Sent by first-class mail to members, and free by email.