National Book Award 2016 winners announced

In the US, the winners of the 2016 National Book Awards have been announced. Colson Whitehead won the fiction award for The Underground Railroad (Fleet), which traces a slave’s flight to freedom in an alternate history of the US where the underground railroad is a literal locomotive. Civil rights campaigner and congressman John Lewis won the young people’s literature award for March: Book Three (with Andrew Aydin & Nate Powell, Top Shelf Productions), the third volume in his graphic novel memoir about his participation in the 1960s US civil rights movement. The nonfiction award was presented to Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (Ibram X Kendi, Nation Books) and the poetry award went to The Performance of Becoming Human (Daniel Borzutzky, Brooklyn Arts Press). The Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters was awarded to historian Robert A Caro, best known for his multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson, and poets Tori Derricote and Cornelius Eady were this year’s recipients of the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. The winners of the four major categories will each receive a cash prize of US$10,000 (A$13,487) and a bronze sculpture, on top of the US$1000 (A$1349) awarded to each shortlisted author. For more information, click here.

Category: International news