The National Book Foundation announced the longlist for poetry on Wednesday. The 10 finalists include a four-time National Book Award finalist, Frank Bidart, who was born in Bakersfield, as well as three poets with their first collections — Chen Chen, Layli Long Soldier and Mai Der Vang.

Here is the complete list:

“Half-light: Collected Poems 1965-2016” by Frank Bidart Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers

“When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities” by Chen Chen Published by BOA Editions Ltd.


“The Book of Endings” by Leslie Harrison Published by University of Akron Press

“Magdalene: Poems” by Marie Howe Published by W.W. Norton & Co.

“Where Now: New and Selected Poems” by Laura Kasischke Published by Copper Canyon Press

“WHEREAS” by Layli Long Soldier Published by Graywolf Press


“In the Language of My Captor” by Shane McCrae Published by Wesleyan University Press

“Square Inch Hours” by Sherod Santos Published by W.W. Norton & Co.

“Don’t Call Us Dead: Poems” by Danez Smith Published by Graywolf Press

“Afterland” by Mai Der Vang Published by Graywolf Press


The announcement was the second in a series being made this week. The longlist for young people’s literature was announced Monday; nonfiction will be announced on Thursday and fiction on Friday.

Finalists for all categories will be announced Oct. 4; the gala celebrating the winners takes place Nov. 15 in New York.

carolyn.kellogg@latimes.com


@paperhaus