Three Africa-born writers have been named to the 2025 National Book Awards longlists, released this week by The New Yorker.
Nigerian poet Gbenga Adesina, Egyptian novelist Mohamed Kheir, and Cairo-born journalist-novelist Omar El Akkad are among dozens of authors recognized across five categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature.
Gbenga Adesina was longlisted in Poetry for Death Does Not End at the Sea, published by the University of Nebraska Press.
Mohamed Kheir appears on the Translated Literature list with Sleep Phase, translated from Arabic by Robin Moger, Two Lines.
Omar El Akkad, born in Cairo and raised in Canada, was named to the Nonfiction longlist for One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This published by Knopf / Penguin Random House.
Finalists across all five categories will be revealed on Tuesday, October 7 in collaboration with The New York Times. Winners will be announced live at the 76th National Book Awards Ceremony & Benefit Dinner on Wednesday, November 19, 2025.
For more information about the 76th National Book Awards and to register to watch the winners announced live, please click here.
Congratulations, Gbenga Adesina, Mohamed Kheir, and Omar El Akkad!
Bakare Oluwatobiloba
I write to educate, motivate and define history with literature. Just being me!
