Two African writers are among the 25 finalists for the 2026 National Book Awards: Egyptian author Abdelrahman ElGendy, in Nonfiction, for his memoir Huna: A Memoir of Revolution, Prison, and Becoming, and Senegalese novelist Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, in Translated Literature, for Pure Men, translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud. The National Book Foundation announced the finalists on October 6, and both writers were on the longlist we reported in September. Delali Adjoa, who was also longlisted, did not advance to the finalist stage.
Huna (Hogarth) is ElGendy’s account of the years after the 2011 revolution that sparked hope for a free Egypt. The Foundation says he was a teenage student activist when he and his father were arrested during a brutal police crackdown on a mass demonstration, and the memoir follows their story of political resistance, survival, and liberation in the face of authoritarianism. It is up against books by Colin Asher, Camonghne Felix, Sara Nović, and Joseph Osmundson.
Sarr, who is no stranger to the National Book Awards, was longlisted in 2023 for The Most Secret Memory of Men, also translated by Vergnaud. Pure Men (Other Press) follows a literature professor in a conservative Islamic community who wrestles with homophobia after watching a viral video of an angry crowd exhuming the body of a queer person. As public scrutiny closes in, he is forced to reexamine his own sexuality. Sarr is up against Karl Ove Knausgaard, Vicente Luis Mora, Intan Paramaditha, and Samar Yazbek, who is the author of a book on Gaza. In the Translated Literature category, the prize money is shared equally between author and translator.
Winners will be announced at the 77th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner on Wednesday, November 18, which will be livestreamed on the Foundation’s website and YouTube. Each winner receives $10,000, a bronze medal, and a statue, and each finalist receives $1,000 and a bronze medal. The finalists will also read from their work at an event at NYU Skirball on November 17, which is open to the public and livestreamed. This year’s ceremony will also honour Salman Rushdie with the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and Perri Klass with the Literarian Award. Congratulations to ElGendy, Sarr, and Vergnaud, and we’ll be rooting for them on November 18.
