While you were watching the Democratic Debates last night, a different clash of titans went down at the National Book Foundation, emceed by Reading Rainbow’s very own LeVar Burton. The 2019 winners of the National Book Award were announced in the following categories:
Fiction: Trust Exercise by Susan Choi (Henry Holt and Co.)
Nonfiction: The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom (Grove Press)
Poetry: Sight Lines by Arthur Sze (Copper Canyon Press)
Translated literature: Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming by Laszlo Krasnahorkai, translated by Ottilie Mulzet (New Directions)
Young people’s literature: 1919: The Year That Changed America (Bloomsbury)
Fiction winner Susan Choi said “Given what we’re all facing today, I find it an astonishing privilege what I get to do every day. I get to lead a life centered on books and bring other people into that world.” Read our review of Trust Exercise here.
Longlisted were the following books: Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Black Light by Kimberly King Parsons, The Need by Helen Philips, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong and The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead.
