10 National Book Award Nominees You Need to Know | Literary Fiction Longlist

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This post was an original Subtack Live that aired on September 18, 2026.

Awards season has landed — and the 2026 National Book Award (NBA) fiction longlist is stacked. Deedi Reads joins the pod to break it all down.

Deedi from the Deedi Reads Substack joins What to Read Next for a special crossover covering all ten titles on the 2026 National Book Award fiction longlist — from Marlon James's queer epic The Disappearers to Valeria Luiselli's Beginning Middle End. We also dig into the Hugo Awards, the biggest NBA snub of the year, and how to build a budget-friendly award-season TBR using your library

📚 Books Mentioned

• Dead Beat by Leigh Bardugo — Buy on Amazon | Borrow on Libby | Fantasy, Dark Academia, Horror |
• Paradiso 17 by Hannah Lillith Assadi — Buy on Amazon | Borrow on Libby | Literary Fiction |
• Red Ants by Kimberly Blaeser — Buy on Amazon | Borrow on Libby | Literary Fiction, Short Stories, Horror
• Dèy by Edwidge Danticat — Buy on Amazon | Borrow on Libby | Literary Fiction |
• Pretend You're Dead and I Carry You by Julián Delgado Lopera — Buy on Amazon | Borrow on Libby | Literary Fiction, Magical Realism
• Python's Kiss by Louise Erdrich — Buy on Amazon | Borrow on Libby | Literary Fiction, Short Stories
• The Disappearers by Marlon James — Buy on Amazon | Borrow on Libby | Literary Fiction, Crime
• Beginning Middle End by Valeria Luiselli — Buy on Amazon | Borrow on Libby | Literary Fiction
• Passengers by Alexander Maksik — Buy on Amazon | Borrow on Libby | Literary Fiction |
• The Renovation by Kenan Orhan — Buy on Amazon | Borrow on Libby | Literary Fiction
• Mad Eden by Morgan Thomas — Buy on Amazon | Borrow on Libby | Literary Fiction |
• The Song of Stork and Dromedary by Anjet Daanje (trans. from Dutch) — Buy on Amazon | Borrow on Libby | Literary Fiction, Translated Literature

⏱️ Timestamps

• [00:00] Intro — NBA fiction longlist collab with Deedi Reads
• [00:01] Deedi's whirlwind NBA announcement week
• [00:02] Reacting to Dead Beat by Leigh Bardugo
• [00:03] The full 2026 fiction longlist, read aloud
• [00:04] Deedi's reads so far: Paradiso 17 & Beginning Middle End
• [00:06] Pretend You're Dead and I Carry You — magical realism & Latin American lit
• [00:08] Deedi's reading game plan — library holds, formats, timeline
• [00:10] NBA after-party & free livestream info
• [00:11] Balancing award reading with a fantasy-heavy TBR
• [00:12] October fantasy lineup + finishing Sabaa Tahir's Empire
• [00:14] Tease: Deedi's upcoming Divergent essay
• [00:15] Hugo Awards recap — Alix E. Harrow & The Raven Scholar
• [00:17] Nonfiction longlist picks + the year's biggest NBA snub (Tayari Jones's Kin)
• [00:19] Translated literature longlist & The Song of Stork and Dromedary snub
• [00:20] Wrap-up and sign-off

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