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The selections were winnowed down from 1,637 books.

On Wednesday, the National Book Foundation announced the 25 books that remain in the running for the National Book Awards, now in its 69th year.

The writers come from such places as Pittsburgh, Norway, Iran and Poland, and many of them have delved into some of the most pressing conversations of our time: racism, masculinity, addiction, the destruction of indigenous culture, class divides and corporations.

And for the first time since the 1980s, the judges will also honor a work in translation.

"This year, instead of just celebrating the best American literature, we're celebrating the best literature in America," Lisa Lucas, executive director of the National Book Foundation, told NPR.

"We're from everywhere, and we have to celebrate the world we live in," she said.

Chilean writer Isabel Allende will be recognized at the awards dinner in New York with the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.


Doron Weber, best known for his "family memoir," 

, will receive the foundation's Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.


On Nov. 13, every finalist will read from the pages of his or her book at The New School in New York City. The winners will be announced the next day.

The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation

American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic

Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth

We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights

American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin

Arts and Culture

The Thread® - Books and Literary News

Sasha Ingber

Author

'This year, instead of just celebrating the best American literature, we're celebrating the best literature in America,' said Lisa Lucas, executive director of the National Book Foundation.

'Florida,' 'Heartland' among National Book Awards finalists

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