National book awards: finalists use ceremony to call for Israel-Hamas ceasefire after sponsors pull out
Twenty of the 25 nominated authors make collective statement after Justin Torres and Ned Blackhawk win major categories
October 2023
Paul Harding and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah among National Book Award finalists
Winners from 25 finalists across fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature and young people’s literature will be announced in November
November 2022
Tess Gunty and Imani Perry among National Book Award winners
Gunty’s debut novel The Rabbit Hutch, set in a low-income housing community in Indiana, was the fiction winner
October 2022
National Book Awards 2022: Gayl Jones, Sharon Olds, Imani Perry among finalists
The winners of the prestigious US awards, in five categories, will be announced in a ceremony in November
May 2022
Short story writer Deesha Philyaw: ‘I wanted to challenge the church’s obsession with sex’
The author of the acclaimed The Secret Life of Church Ladies on the Black American Christian community, sexual shame and coming to terms with her queerness
November 2021
National Book awards: Jason Mott wins US literary prize for ‘masterful’ novel Hell of a Book
The North Carolina novelist has won the National Book Foundation’s award for fiction for his dark absurdist novel
October 2021
National Book Awards 2021: Robert Jones Jr and Lauren Groff among finalists
The winners of the prestigious US awards, in five categories, will be announced in a ceremony in November
November 2020
National Book Awards: Charles Yu and Malcolm X biography take top prizes
Yu, writer of short stories and television, won best fiction for Interior Chinatown, his inventive, ‘gut punch’ second novel
January 2020
Carmen Maria Machado: ‘I wished that I had a police report, or a black eye'
The author’s memoir In the Dream House addresses the taboo of abuse in lesbian relationships. She talks about homophobia, healing – and finding fun in fiction
November 2019
National Book Awards: Susan Choi wins fiction prize for Trust Exercise
Queer writer Edmund White was also honored with a medal for distinguished contribution to American letters
December 2018
Observer New Review Q&A
Dolly Alderton: ‘We’re so keen to moralise the female experience’
The writer on her award-winning memoir, technology and relationships – and her love of Christmas schmaltz
November 2018
National Book Awards: Sigrid Nunez wins fiction prize as Isabel Allende is honoured
Chilean-born author receives lifetime achievement award at ceremony celebrating diversity, truth and literature as healing forces in a dark time
May 2018
Jesmyn Ward: ‘Black girls are silenced, misunderstood and underestimated'
The author of Sing, Unburied, Sing, had a tough childhood in Mississippi, survived Hurricane Katrina, and became the first woman to win two US national book awards for fiction
November 2017
National Book Awards: Jesmyn Ward wins major prize for Sing, Unburied, Sing
Author takes out top prize for fiction for the second time with novel about race, poverty, loss and family in America’s south
November 2016
Rep John Lewis tells National Book awards how he was refused entry to library because he was black
US congressman shares childhood story of public library colour bar at NBA ceremony, as Colson Whitehead and historian Ibram X Kendi also earn accolades
October 2016
Vietnam, slavery and racism tackled on NBA nonfiction shortlist
Colson Whitehead leads National Book Awards fiction shortlist
March 2016
National Book Foundation director: 'diversity isn't just about race'
Lisa Lucas is the first woman and African American to lead one of America’s key literary institutions, with a mandate to get more people to read – and write
December 2015
Poet Robin Coste Lewis: 'I am an artist through to my marrow'
Brought up in Compton, Lewis overcame brain damage to become a poet, and this year won the National Book Award for The Voyage of the Sable Venus
November 2015
National Book Award winner Adam Johnson: 'Storytelling isn't a game to me'
The surprise winner of this year’s National Book Award for fiction says he feels a duty to capture the voices of people who aren’t able to tell their own stories
