The American literary season found its first markers on Tuesday, September 15, when the National Book Foundation began revealing the longlists for the 2026 National Book Awards. Among the ten titles on the longlist for Translated Literature, two were translated from Spanish: Álvaro Enrigue’s Now I Surrender and Vicente Luis Mora’s Centroeuropa, Literary Hub reported.
The ten books were selected from a pool of 159 submitted by publishers. Finalists in all categories will be announced on Tuesday, October 6, and the winners will be named at the 77th National Book Awards ceremony on November 18.
The Spanish-language contenders
Now I Surrender, by the Mexican novelist Álvaro Enrigue, was translated by Natasha Wimmer and published by Riverhead Books. Kirkus Reviews, which dates its US publication to March 3, 2026, calls it “a prismatic work of fiction about the last days of the Apaches.” According to the review, the narrative spans 1836 to 1886 and follows Camila Ezguerra, a young woman who is kidnapped and gradually integrates into Apache society, while Apache leaders including Geronimo fight on two fronts against Mexican and American forces. The novel was first published in Spanish in 2018 as Ahora me rindo y eso es todo.
Centroeuropa, by the Spanish writer Vicente Luis Mora, was translated by Rahul Bery and published by Bellevue Literary Press. The publisher describes a newly widowed farmer who arrives in an early nineteenth-century European town to claim land and, while digging a grave for his wife, discovers perfectly preserved frozen soldiers, with more bodies from past and future conflicts continuing to appear. Bellevue Literary Press notes that the book is Mora’s first North American publication and lists its place on the National Book Award longlist among its honors.
The full Translated Literature longlist
- Egana Djabbarova, My Dreadful Body, translated from Russian by Lisa C. Hayden (New Vessel Press)
- Álvaro Enrigue, Now I Surrender, translated from Spanish by Natasha Wimmer (Riverhead Books)
- Karim Kattan, Eden at Dawn, translated from French by Jeffrey Zuckerman (Restless Books)
- Karl Ove Knausgaard, The School of Night, translated from Norwegian by Martin Aitken (Penguin Press)
- Ping Lu, To the East of the East, translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang (World Editions)
- Vicente Luis Mora, Centroeuropa, translated from Spanish by Rahul Bery (Bellevue Literary Press)
- Intan Paramaditha, Night of a Thousand Hells, translated from Indonesian by Stephen Epstein and Tiffany Tsao (Europa Editions)
- Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Pure Men, translated from French by Lara Vergnaud (Other Press)
- Maria Stepanova, The Disappearing Act, translated from Russian by Sasha Dugdale (New Directions)
- Samar Yazbek, Your Presence Is a Danger to Your Life: Voices of Survival and Witness in Gaza, translated from Arabic by Leri Price (Other Press)
The judges for the category are Shelley Fairweather-Vega, Javier García del Moral, John Keene, Christopher Merrill, who chairs the panel, and Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, per Literary Hub.
Young readers, too
The same day brought the longlist for Young People’s Literature, ten titles chosen from 290 submissions by a panel chaired by Brandy Colbert, Literary Hub reported. It includes Chanel Miller’s The Moon Without Stars, Tae Keller’s When Tomorrow Burns, Julian Randall’s Shook, and The Fight of Our Lives: AIDS in America by David Levithan and Gabriel Duckels.
Why it matters
For readers in New York and across the Americas, a translation longlist with two Spanish-language novels is a welcome signal, particularly as Hispanic Heritage Month begins. It also recognizes the translators, Wimmer and Bery, whose craft makes these books available to English-language readers. The finalists arrive on October 6.
See all sources
- Here’s the longlist for the 2026 National Book Award for Translated Literature., Literary Hub, 2026-09-15
- Here’s the longlist for the 2026 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature., Literary Hub, 2026-09-15
- Centroeuropa, Bellevue Literary Press, 2026-09-15
- Now I Surrender by Álvaro Enrigue (review), Kirkus Reviews, 2026-03-03
- Álvaro Enrigue, Wikipedia, 2026-09-15
Lead image: illustrative photo by Jaredd Craig on Unsplash.
