• The Hub

    News, Notes, Talk

    Here are the winners of the 2020 National Book Awards.

    Literary Hub

    November 18, 2020, 8:39pm

    Tonight, the National Book Awards made its virtual debut, presenting awards in five categories—Young People’s Literature, Translated Literature, Poetry, Nonfiction, and Fiction—to five winners from among 25 finalists. Congratulations to all the winners, which you can find in bold below.

    *

    Winners for the 2020 National Book Awards

    FICTION

    Rumaan Alam, Leave the World Behind

    Lydia Millet, A Children’s Bible

    Deesha Philyaw, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

    Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

    Charles Yu, Interior Chinatown

    NONFICTION

    Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, The Undocumented Americans

    Claudio Saunt, Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory

    Jenn Shapland, My Autobiography of Carson McCullers

    Les Payne and Tamara Payne, The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X

    Jerald Walker, How to Make a Slave and Other Essays

    YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE

    Kacen Callender, King and the Dragonflies

    Traci Chee, We Are Not Free

    Candice Iloh, Every Body Looking

    Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed, When Stars are Scattered

    Gavriel Savit, The Way Back

    TRANSLATED LITERATURE

    Anja Kampmann, High as the Waters
    Translated from the German by Anne Posten

    Jonas Hassen Khemiri, The Family Clause
    Translated from the Swedish by Alice Menzies

    Yu Miri, Tokyo Ueno Station
    Translated from the Japanese by Morgan Giles

    Pilar Quintana, The Bitch
    Translated from the Spanish Lisa Dillman

    Adania Shibli, Minor Detail
    Translated from the Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette

    POETRY

    Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, A Treatise on Stars

    Tommye Blount, Fantasia for the Man in Blue

    Don Mee Choi, DMZ Colony

    Anthony Cody, Borderland Apocrypha

    Natalie Diaz, Postcolonial Love Poem

  • Become a Lit Hub Supporting Member: Because Books Matter

    For the past decade, Literary Hub has brought you the best of the book world for free—no paywall. But our future relies on you. In return for a donation, you’ll get an ad-free reading experience, exclusive editors’ picks, book giveaways, and our coveted Joan Didion Lit Hub tote bag. Most importantly, you’ll keep independent book coverage alive and thriving on the internet.

    x