Diverse narratives collect literary prizes

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.

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, cross-cultural 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 each received $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.

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, citing the complications of organizing a gathering of “authors,

publishers, and guests traveling from all over the country.”

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. Some finalists, fiction and nonfiction, looked for meaning in the distant past, whether in Nicole Eustace’s historical work “Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America,” or such novels as Lauren Groff ’s 12th-13th century narrative “Matrix” and Robert Jones Jr.’s slavery story “The Prophets.”

Associated Press “All That She Carried” by Tiya Miles took the nonfiction prize; Jason Mott’s”Hell of a Book” won in the fiction category; and “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” by Malinda Lo won for young people’s literature.