Jason Mott and Tiya Miles win National Book Awards
NEW YORK » Jason Mott’s “Hell of a Book,” a surreal meta-narrative about an author’s promotional tour and his haunted past and present, has won the National Book Award for fiction — a plot twist Mott did not imagine for himself.
“Hell of a Book” is a satirical take on a Black writer’s adventures on the road for a promotional tour — Mott himself had his share of experiences while talking up such previous works as his debut novel “The Returned” — and a stark and disorienting tale of racial violence and identity, drawing on recent headlines and the author’s childhood.
“I would like to dedicate this award to all the other mad kids, to all the outsiders, the weirdos, the bullied, the ones so strange they had no choice but to be misunderstood by the world and those around them,” Mott, 43, said in his acceptance speech.
He also cited “the ones who, in spite of this, refuse to outgrow their imagination, refuse to abandon their dreams, refused to deny, diminish their identity, or their truths, or their loves — unlike so many others.”
Tiya Miles’ “All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake” was the winner for nonfiction.
Malinda Lo’s “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” — a story of same-sex, crosscultural love set in the 1950s — won for young people’s literature.
The poetry prize was awarded to Martín Espada’s “Floaters,” and best translation went to Elisa Shua Dusapin’s “Winter in Sokcho,” translated from the French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins.
Winners in the competitive categories Wednesday night each receive $10,000.
Two honorary prizes were presented: Author-playwright Karen Tei Yamashita received a lifetime achievement medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and author-librarian-npr commentator Nancy Pearl was given the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.
Jason mott’s ‘Hell of a book,’ the surreal meta-narrative about an author’s promotional tour and his haunted past and present, has won the national book award for fiction — a plot twist mott did not imagine for himself.
The 72nd annual awards were presented by the nonprofit National Book Foundation.
While other literary events such as PEN America’s annual gala were held in person this fall, the Foundation decided in September to have a virtual ceremony for the second straight year.
Yamashita and Pearl were among the honorees who spoke of a precarious present, worrying about the wave of efforts to censor books at schools and libraries and about violent attacks against racial minorities.
Judging panels looked through more than 1,800 submitted books. This year’s judges included such acclaimed authors as Eula Biss, Ilya Kaminsky and Charles Yu, winner in 2020 of the National Book Award for fiction.