The 2018 National Book Award winners were announced tonight in New York City. The big prize for Fiction went to The Friend by Sigrid Nunez.
For the 69th Awards ceremony, host Nick Offerman‘s opening remarks were rife with innuendo and earnest musings on the importance of literature. In a nod to the night’s finalists, Offerman remarked that this year’s finalists including five debut authors and 10 titles published by independent presses. About the newly added category “Translated Literature,” Offerman quipped: “Suck on that, Muslim ban.”
The award in the Young People’s Literature category went to The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo. The inaugural award for Translated Literature went to The Emissary by Yoko Tawada; translated by Margaret Mitsutani (Bonus: Tawada’s 2017 Year in Reading). The Poetry award was won by Justin Phillip Reed for Indecency. The Nonfiction award went to The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey C. Stewart.
Bonus Links: Earlier in the year we dove into both the Shortlist and the Longlist to share excerpts and reviews where available.
