Ned Blackhawk, a professor of history at Yale, won the National Book Award for nonfiction on Wednesday night for “The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History,” which puts Indigenous tribes at the center of American history, including the development of the country’s core political commitments. The 74th annual awards, where each prize comes with $10,000 and a bronze sculpture, were presented at a ceremony in New York that was streamed live online.
Blackhawk said his book “was a very long time in the making. And I really can’t even begin to identify its precise origins. It’s conceivable they started at a time when I may not have even known that I would someday become a historian.”
Justin Torres took home the prize for fiction for “Blackouts,” which revolves around the story of “Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns,” a landmark report from 1941. In his review for The Washington Post, Charles Arrowsmith called the novel, which is intercut with photos, illustrations and heavily redacted pages from the 1941 report, “an ingenious assemblage of research, vignette, image and conceit.”
In the days leading up to the ceremony, some sponsors expressed concern about the possible political climate at the event. Zibby Owens, founder of Zibby Media, explained her company’s withdrawal as a sponsor in a Substack post on Tuesday, writing that she was “deeply troubled” that nominees were planning to “band together to use their speeches to promote a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli agenda. As a sponsor, I am not comfortable bringing my authors and my team into a politically charged environment like this one, one that will make many of us feel quite uncomfortable — including myself as a Jewish woman.”
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Talk of events in the Middle East was sparse until the end of the night, when Aaliyah Bilal, a finalist in the fiction category for her story collection “Temple Folk,” read a short statement while standing in front of her fellow finalists onstage:
On behalf of the finalists, we oppose the ongoing bombardment of Gaza and call for a humanitarian cease-fire to address the urgent humanitarian needs of Palestinian civilians, particularly children. We oppose antisemitism and anti-Palestinian sentiment and Islamophobia equally, accepting the human dignity of all parties, knowing that further bloodshed does nothing to secure lasting peace in the region. Thank you.
The awards show endured a brief controversy in September, when it disinvited original host Drew Barrymore after the actress restarted her daytime talk show during the Hollywood writers strike. The actor and literacy advocate LeVar Burton stepped in to host the event, and Oprah Winfrey made a special appearance, offering a heartfelt speech against censorship. “To ban books is to strangle off what sustains us,” she said.
Craig Santos Perez received the poetry award for “from unincorporated territory [åmot].” Perez, who is from Guam, spoke of his work’s deep commitment to his home and read a poem on that theme. “When I started writing,” he told the audience, “my mission was to hopefully inspire the next generation of Pacific Islander authors.”
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The award for translated literature was given to a debut novel, Stênio Gardel’s “The Words That Remain,” and its translator from the Portuguese, Bruna Dantas Lobato. (The author and translator split the prize in this category.) In Gardel’s book, an old man named Raimundo recalls his forbidden teenage romance with his best friend, Cicero. “Growing up as a gay boy in the hinterlands of the northeast of Brazil,” Gardel said, “it was impossible for me to think, to dream of such an honor. But being here tonight as a gay man, receiving this award for a novel about another gay man’s journey to self-acceptance, I want to say to everyone who ever felt wrong about themselves that your heart and your desire are true, and you are just as deserving as anybody else of having a fulfilling life and accomplishing impossible dreams.”
The award for young people’s literature went to Dan Santat for “A First Time for Everything,” a graphic memoir based on a life-changing European trip Santat took while in middle school.
Two special awards whose winners had been announced ahead of the ceremony were presented. The decorated poet Rita Dove was honored with the 2023 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Paul Yamazaki, a longtime buyer at the storied City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, received the 2023 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.
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