Roz Chast's memoir Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? has been nominated for the 2014 National Book Award for Nonfiction, marking the first time a graphic novel has made the longlist in one of the adult categories. The five finalists will be announced Oct. 15.

In 2006, Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese became the first graphic novel nominated for a National Book Award when it was recognized in the Young People's Literature division. His Boxers & Saints was shortlisted last year in the same category.

The first memoir from the longtime New Yorker cartoonist, the bestselling Can't we Talk About Something More Pleasant? centers on Chast's efforts to care for her aging parents in their final years.

Also the author of Theories of Everything: Selected, Collected, and Health-Inspected Cartoons of Roz Chast, 1978-2006, Chast illustrated Steve Martin's bestselling children's book The Alphabet from A to Y, with Bonus Letter, Z.

The National Book Award's fiction nominees will be revealed Thursday. Winners in all categories will be announced Nov. 19.