The National Book Award for Nonfiction (2025)

"Journalist and novelist Omar El Akkad centers his attention on American and European complicity in the destruction of Gaza and the Palestinian people, arguing that mass apathy towards immense suffering is leading to innumerable fractures across Western societies. In his debut work of nonfiction, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, El Akkad grapples with his realization that the Western promise of freedom for all was never truly meant to be inclusive, and that continuing to ignore state-sanctioned violence will one day be met by a powerful reckoning—not just for individuals, but for entire societies. "

"Caleb Gayle focuses on the life of Edward McCabe, a Black businessman and rising political figure, who attempted to establish a state governed by and for Black people within the United States. McCabe set his sights on Oklahoma, a state that—after the Civil War and Reconstruction era—was already the home to Indigenous people who were forcibly displaced as a result of the Indian Removal Act. Drawing from research and reporting, Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State narrates the political context, diverging business interests, and racism that dismantled McCabe’s dream of Black liberation."

"Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy tells the stories of the women engineers, scientists, academics, and doctors who outnumbered men in the Russian workforce during the 20th century, alongside the stories of the revolutionary feminists leading powerful movements today. Journalist Julia Ioffe returns to Russia nearly 20 years after her family fled the Soviet Union, and blends reporting, history, and memoir to illustrate how the story of modern Russia—across times of war and revolution—is interwoven with the stories of countless Soviet and Russian women."

"Iranian journalists Fatemeh Jamalpour and Nilo Tabrizy offer a powerful exploration of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement—an uprising sparked by the killing of Mahsa Jîna Amini, a young Kurdish woman who died in police custody after her arrest for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s dress code. For the Sun After Long Nights: The Story of Iran’s Women-Led Uprising is a cross-border collaboration that sheds light on the power of multiethnic and multigenerational sisterhood, and how journalists, protesters, and everyday people can stand in defiance of oppression."

"The novelist Yiyun Li remembers the lives of her two sons, James and Vincent, who both died by suicide only a few years apart. Li’s memoir Things in Nature Merely Grow contends with loss and unbearable grief while choosing to embrace radical acceptance—that both of her children chose death, and that she will continue to live despite the “abyss” in the aftermath."

"Experimental artist, filmmaker, and writer, Lana Lin, uses the literary form invented by Gertrude Stein in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas to tell the story of her 25-year queer partnership and artistic collaboration. Narrated through the eyes of her partner, readers follow Lan Thao from her youth in Vietnam, her years in Canada after the Vietnam War, and the couple’s first encounter in New York City in The Autobiography of H. Lan Thao Lam—an exploration of cancer, queerness, anti-Asian hate, and the delights and challenges that have connected the artists’ lives for decades."

"At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ben Ratliff reflects on and takes note of the music he listens to during each of his near-daily runs—ranging from hardcore punk to string quartets, from DJ sets to soul, and more—while observing New York in lockdown and deepening his appreciation for music along the way. Ratliff merges criticism, autobiography, and philosophy in Run the Song: Writing About Running About Listening, a meditation on music, the body in motion, and a radically changing world."

"Claudia Rowe explores the American foster care system through interviews with current and former foster youth—alongside psychologists, advocates, and judges. Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care interrogates the inner workings of a system that contributes to mass incarceration and calls for urgent reform."

"Anthropologist and wildland firefighter Jordan Thomas narrates a six-month megafire season in When it All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World. Blending ecology, federal forestry, and Indigenous history alongside an investigation of the fire industrial complex, Thomas brings readers to the front lines of the climate crisis. "

"In the early 2000s, Helen Whybrow and her partner embarked on a journey to restore a farmhouse built in 1777, and the family begins to interlace their lives with the two hundred acres of land. Set in Vermont’s Green Mountains, The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd’s Life shares the story of Whybrow’s working life as a shepherd tending to a flock of Icelandic sheep, exploring the interconnectedness of the natural world, and encouraging us all to be more attentive to the world around us. "