Each year they award $10,000 and a bronze sculpture to the best books in five categories: Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature, and young people’s literature.
In a live-streamed ceremony hosted by Phoebe Robinson, author of You Can’t Touch My Hair And Other Things I Still Have to Explain, Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay, and the newly released Please Don’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes, the winners were announced on Wednesday, November 17, 2021.
The announcer was Dion Graham, audiobook narrator and actor.
Fiction Winner – Jason Mott, Hell of a Book
The finalists for the National Book Award for Fiction were: Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land Lauren Groff, Matrix Laird Hunt, Zorrie Robert Jones, Jr., The Prophets An additional five books were long-listed: Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois Jakob Guanzon, Abundance Katie Kitamura, Intimacies Elizabeth McCracken, The Souvenir Museum: Stories Richard Powers, Bewilderment The 2021 NBA Fiction judges were chaired by Luis Alberto Urrea and additionally included Alan Michael Parker, Emily Pullen, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, and Charles Yu.
Nonfiction Winner – Tiya Miles, All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
Finalists for the 2021 National Book Awards in Nonfiction include: Hanif Abdurraqib, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance Lucas Bessire, Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains Grace M. Cho, Tastes Like War: A Memoir Nicole Eustace, Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America The longlist included: Scott Ellsworth, The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice Heather McGhee, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together Louis Menand, The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America Deborah Willis, The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship The chair for the nonfiction award was Nell Painter and the other judges were Eula Biss, Aaron John Curtis, Kate Tuttle, and Jerald Walker.
Poetry Winner – Martín Espada, Floaters
Desiree C. Bailey, What Noise Against the Cane Douglas Kearney, Sho Hoa Nguyen, A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure Jackie Wang, The Sunflower Cast a Spell to Save Us from the Void The longlist included: Threa Almontaser, The Wild Fox of Yemen Baba Badji, Ghost Letters CM Burroughs, Master Suffering Andrés Cerpa, The Vault Forrest Gander, Twice Alive The chair for the poetry award was A. Van Jordan and other judges were Don Mee Choi, Natalie Diaz, Matthea Harvey, and Ilya Kaminsky.
Translated Literature Winner: Elisa Shua Dusapin, Winter in SokchoTranslated from the French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins
The finalists consisted of: Ge Fei, Peach Blossom ParadiseTranslated from the Chinese by Canaan Morse Nona Fernández, The Twilight ZoneTranslated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer Benjamín Labatut, When We Cease to Understand the WorldTranslated from the Spanish by Adrian Nathan West Samar Yazbek, Planet of ClayTranslated from the Arabic by Leri Price The longlist included: Maryse Condé, Waiting for the Waters to RiseTranslated from the French by Richard Philcox Bo-Young Kim, On the Origin of Species and Other StoriesTranslated from the Korean by Joungmin Lee Comfort and Sora Kim-Russell Elvira Navarro, Rabbit Island: StoriesTranslated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney Judith Schalansky, An Inventory of LossesTranslated from the German by Jackie Smith Maria Stepanova, In Memory of MemoryTranslated from the Russian by Sasha The chair for the best translated literature was Stephen Snyder with judges Jessie Chaffee, Madhu H. Kaza, Achy Obejas, and Sergio de la Pava.
Young People’s Literature Winner: Malinda Lo, Last Night at the Telegraph Club
The finalists for the Young People’s Literature Award from the NBA were: Shing Yin Khor, The Legend of Auntie Po Kyle Lukoff, Too Bright to See Kekla Magoon, Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People Amber McBride, Me (Moth) Longlist entries included: Carole Boston Weatherford; illustrations by Floyd Cooper, Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre Safia Elhillo, Home Is Not a Country Darcie Little Badger, A Snake Falls to Earth Anna-Marie McLemore, The Mirror Season Paula Yoo, From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement Cathryn Mercier was the chair with additional judges Pablo Cartaya, Traci Chee, Leslie Connor, and Ibi Aanu Zoboi.
Additional Awards at the 2021 National Book Awards
The Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community was presented to Nancy Pearl by Ron Charles. The Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters was presented to Karen Tei Yamashita by Viet Thanh Nguyen.
