There’s some big book news today, everyone! Keep reading to find out the winners in five crucial categories!
Phoebe Robinson, stand-up comedian, actress, bestselling author, and founder of Tiny Reparations Books, hosted the exclusively online National Book Awards Ceremony on November 17, 2021 at 7:00 EST. Book aficionados across the country tuned in here!
The awards are important not just for the breaking news but the intent behind it: The mission of the National Book Foundation is to celebrate the best literature in America, expand its audience and ensure that books have a prominent place in American culture.
Allow me to catch you up. The National Book Foundation announced the finalists for the prestigious accolades, naming five books each in five categories. The Foundation awarded the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters to Karen Tei Yamashita, presented by Viet Thanh Nguyen, and the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community to Nancy Pearl, presented by Ron Charles at the ceremony.
BookTrib congratulates:
Fiction: Hell of a Book by Jason Mott
Nonfiction: All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles
Poetry: Floaters by Martín Espada
Translated Literature: Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin, translated from the French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins
Young People’s Literature: Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Here were the other four finalists in each category:
Fiction:
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Matrix by Lauren Groff
Zorrie by Laird Hunt
The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.
Nonfiction:
A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib
Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains by Lucas Bessire
Tastes Like War: A Memoir by Grace M. Cho
Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America by Nicole Eustace
Poetry:
What Noise Against the Cane by Desiree C. Bailey
Sho by Douglas Kearney
A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure by Hoa Nguyen
The Sunflower Cast A Spell To Save Us From The Void by Jackie Wang
Translated Literature:
Peach Blossom Paradise by Ge Fei, translated from the Chinese by Canaan Morse
The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernández, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut, translated from the Spanish by Adrian Nathan West
Planet of Clay by Samar Yazbek, translated from the Arabic by Leri Price
Young People’s Literature:
The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Kor
Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff
Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
Me by Amber McBride
