Wil Haygood earns place on Longlist for the 2026 National Book Award for Nonfiction
1976 Miami graduate launched his latest nonfiction work during a February event in Oxford
Wil Haygood earns place on Longlist for the 2026 National Book Award for Nonfiction
1976 Miami graduate launched his latest nonfiction work during a February event in Oxford
Miami University alumnus Wil Haygood is one of 10 selected contenders for the National Book Award for Nonfiction.
The 1976 graduate of Miami is the university’s Boadway Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence. His most recent book, “The War Within a War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home,” was among the works announced by the National Book Foundation for the Longlist for the 2026 National Book Award for Nonfiction.
Finalists in all categories will be announced on Oct. 6, while winners will be selected during the 77th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner on Nov. 18.
“The War Within a War” is Haygood’s 10th nonfiction novel and was launched during a February event held at Miami’s Hall Auditorium. Haygood found inspiration for the book, which explores how the war became a mirror for the struggle of Black Americans, from his early life growing up in Columbus, Ohio. Six residents from Haygood’s neighborhood – he delivered newspapers to each of their homes – fought in Vietnam, including Skip Dunn, whose portrait in military helmet and fatigues graces the cover of “The War Within a War.”
“The books I write are books I know I would have loved to have read when I was a student at Miami,” Haygood said in a January story. “Nothing gives me more pleasure than to be able to share my work with the Miami students. I look at all of them walking across campus, studying at King Library, and I am them.”
A prolific author, journalist, and educator, Haygood’s award-winning books include biographies on Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, entertainer Sammy Davis Jr., and White House butler Eugene Allen. Haygood expanded his 2008 Washington Post story on Allen into the book, “The Butler,” which was released as a film in 2013.
Earlier this year, Haygood was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for 2026. He has worked for the Washington Post, Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Boston Globe, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
“He speaks and he writes with conviction and moral clarity and moral courage,” Miami President Gregory Crawford said of Haygood during the February book launch event. “He brings those stories to life through his storytelling.”