Fiction
- Refund: Stories, by Karen E. Bender
- The Turner House, by Angela Flournoy
- Fates and Furies, by Lauren Groff
- Fortune Smiles: Stories, by Adam Johnson
- A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara
Nonfiction
- Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Hold Still, by Sally Mann
- The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonders of Consciousness, by Sy Montgomery
- If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran, by Carla Power
- Ordinary Light, by Tracy K. Smith
Poetry
- Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, by Ross Gay
- How to Be Drawn, by Terrance Hayes
- Voyage of the Sable Venus, by Robin Coste Lewis
- Bright Dead Things, by Ada Limón
- Elegy for a Broken Machine, by Patrick Phillips
Young People’s Literature
- The Thing About Jellyfish, by Ali Benjamin
- Bone Gap, by Laura Ruby
- Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War, by Steve Sheinkin
- Challenger Deep, by Neal Shusterman
- Nimona, by Noelle Stevenson
