What To Read

The winners of the 73rd annual National Book Awards were announced last night at a red carpet gala in New York City emceed by author and TV host Padma Lakshmi. 

The rise in censorship and book banning was a major theme of the evening. "Deciding what books are in school libraries is the job of librarians not politicians," Lakshmi remarked to great applause. Accepting his lifetime achievement award, cartoonist Art Spiegelman joked that book banners turned out to be "shrewd marketers," referring to the rise in sales of his Holocaust-themed book Maus.

Author Ibram X. Kendi presented American Library Association executive director Tracie D. Hall with the 2022 Literarian Award. Hall delivered a moving, personal speech including a tribute to the librarians who fight censorship each day. Stars including Alicia Keys, Jimmy Fallon and Keanu Reeves delivered pre-recorded introductions to each of the five awards: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Literature in Translation and Young People's Literature.

Tess Gunty won the fiction award for The Rabbit Hutch, her debut novel which takes place over one sweaty summer week in a housing complex in Indiana. In his review in the Los Angeles Times, writer and literary critic John Freeman wrote: "it's unusual, to put it mildly, that a book with such dazzling architecture and depth of spiritual insight should come at the beginning of a writer's life." 

Imani Perry won the non-fiction award for South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, which takes readers on  a tour of the American South as a lens on American race, politics, culture, and identity. In a dazzling review, Tayari Jones wrote in the New York Times, "any attempt to classify this ambitious work, which straddles genre, kicks down the fourth wall, dances with poetry, engages with literary criticism and flits from journalism to memoir to academic writing — well, that’s a fool’s errand and only undermines this insightful, ambitious and moving project."

Argentine author Samanta Schweblin and translator Megan McDowell won the award for literature in translation for the story collection Seven Empty Houses. Sabaa Tahir won the Young People's Literature award for All My Rage. The poetry award went to John Keene for Punks: New & Selected Poems.

The Winners

Fiction: The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty

Non-Fiction: South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry

Poetry: Punks: New & Selected Poems by John Keene

Translated Literature: Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin; Translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell

Young People's Literature: All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

The finalists in each category are listed below.

Fiction

WINNER: The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty

FINALISTS (Short List)

• All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews

• The Town of Babylon by Alejandro Varela

• The Birdcatcher by Gayl Jones

• The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochai

FINALISTS (Long List)

• When We Were Sisters by Fatimah Asghar

• Shutter by Ramona Emerson

• If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery

• The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty

• The Birdcatcher by Gayl Jones

• The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochai

• All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews

• Nobody Gets Out Alive by Leigh Newman

• Maria, Maria & Other Stories by Marytza K. Rubio

• The Town of Babylon by Alejandro Varela

Non-Fiction

WINNER: South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry

Shortlist Finalists:

• The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

• The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meghan O’Rourke

• Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus by David Quammen

• His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa

Longlist Finalists:

• Bright Unbearable Reality: Essays by Anna Badkhen

• Ted Kennedy: A Life by John A. Farrell

• Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the Science of Time by Natalie Hodges

• Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands byKelly Lytle Hernández

• The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meghan O’Rourke

• South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry

• Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus by David Quammen

• The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

• His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa

• Lost & Found: A Memoir by Kathryn Schulz

Poetry

WINNER Punks: New & Selected Poems by John Keene

Shortlist Finalists:

• Look at This Blue by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

• Balladz by Sharon Olds

• Best Barbarian by Roger Reeves

• The Rupture Tense by Jenny Xie

Longlist Finalists:

• Golden Ax by Rio Cortez

• Look at This Blue by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

• Still Life by Jay Hopler

• Punks: New & Selected Poems by John Keene

• Balladz by Sharon Olds

• Best Barbarian by Roger Reeves

• Mummy Eaters by Sherry Shenoda

• Duende by Quincy Troupe

• As She Appears by Shelley Wong

• The Rupture Tense by Jenny Xie

Translated Literature

WINNER Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin; Translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell

Shortlist Finalists:

• A New Name: Septology VI-VII by Jon Fosse; Translated from the Norwegian by

  Damion Searls

• Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga; Translated from the French by Mark Polizzotti

• Jawbone by Mónica Ojeda; Translated from the Spanish by Sarah Booker

• Scattered All Over the Earth by Yoko Tawada; Translated from the Japanese by Margaret Mitsutani

Longlist Finalists:

• Ibn Arabi's Small Death by Mohammed Hasan Alwan; Translated from the Arabic by 

  William M. Hutchins

• A New Name: Septology VI-VII by Jon Fosse; Translated from the Norwegian by

  Damion Searls

• Seasons of Purgatory by Shahriar Mandanipour; Translated from the Persian by Sara Khalili

• Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga; Translated from the French by Mark Polizzotti

• Jawbone by Mónica Ojeda; Translated from the Spanish by Sarah Booker

• The Employees by Olga Ravn; Translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken

• Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin; Translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell

• Where You Come From by Saša Stanišić; Translated from the German by Damion Searls

• Scattered All Over the Earth by Yoko Tawada; Translated from the Japanese by Margaret Mitsutani

• The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk; Translated from the Polish by Jennifer Croft

Young People's Literature

WINNER All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

Shortlist Finalists:

• The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill

• The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes

• Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist For Justice by Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes, and Dawud Anyabwile

• Maizy Chen’s Last Chance by Lisa Yee

Longlist Finalists:

• The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum

• A Thousand Steps into Night by Traci Chee

• Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas

• Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix by Anna-Marie McLemore

• Lotus Bloom and the Afro Revolution by Sherri Winston

• The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill

• The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes

• Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist For Justice by Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes, and Dawud Anyabwile

• All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

• Maizy Chen’s Last Chance by Lisa Yee