NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� This year's long list of National Book Awards for young people's literature has a poetic touch.
Five of the 10 nominees announced Tuesday by the National Book Foundation are novels written in verse, including Olivia A. Coles' 鈥淎riel Crashing a Train鈥� and Shifa Saltagi Safadi's 鈥淜areem Between,鈥� a young Muslim's coming-of-age story. The other novels in verse are Margarita Engle鈥檚 鈥淲ild Dreamers,鈥� Alicia D. Williams' 鈥淢id-Air鈥� and Angela Shant茅's 鈥淭he Unboxing of a Black Girl.鈥�
Judges also selected two debut novels, Josh Galarza鈥檚 鈥淭he Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky鈥� and Ali Terese鈥檚 鈥淔ree Period,鈥� along with Violet Duncan's 鈥淏uffalo Dreamer,鈥� Randy Ribay's 鈥淓verything We Never Had鈥� and Erin Entrada Kelly's 鈥淭he First State of Being.鈥�
Throughout the week, the foundation will be unveiling long lists in five competitive categories, including poetry, nonfiction and fiction. The lists will be narrowed to five on Oct. 1, and winners will be announced during a Nov. 20 dinner ceremony.
Ten nominees for books in translation also were announced Tuesday, their settings ranging from Scandinavia to the Middle East to Taiwan. Three books originated in Arabic: Nasser Abu Srour's 鈥淭he Tale of a Wall,鈥� translated by Luke Leafgren; Bothayna Al-Essa's 鈥淭he Book Censor鈥檚 Library,鈥� translated by Ranya Abdelrahman and Sawad Hussain; and Samar Yazbek's 鈥淲here the Wind Calls Home," translated by Leri Price.
Translation judges also cited three books in Spanish: Layla Mart铆nez's 鈥淲oodworm,鈥� translated by Sophie Hughes and Annie McDermott; Fernando Vallejo's 鈥淭he Abyss," translated by Yvette Siegert; and Fernanda Tr铆as' 鈥淧ink Slime,鈥� translated by Heather Cleary.
The other translation nominees were Linnea Axelsson's 鈥溍哾nan,鈥� translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel; Solvej Balle's 鈥淥n the Calculation of Volume (Book I),鈥� translated from the Danish by Barbara J. Haveland; Fiston Mwanza Mujila's 鈥淭he Villain鈥檚 Dance,鈥� translated from the French by Roland Glasse; and Y谩ng Shu膩ng-z菒's 鈥淭aiwan Travelogue,鈥� translated from the Mandarin Chinese by Lin King.
Hillel Italie, The Associated Press
