The National Book Award ceremony took a political turn on Wednesday evening when the event ended with a joint statement from a group of finalists calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
After Justin Torres, who won in the fiction category for his novel “Blackouts,” accepted his award, the stage filled with more than a dozen other nominees from various categories. They stood behind Aaliyah Bilal, a finalist in the fiction category for her short story collection “Temple Folk,” as she read the statement.
“On behalf of the finalists, we reject the continued bombardment of the Gaza Strip and call for a humanitarian ceasefire to address the urgent humanitarian needs of Palestinian civilians, especially children,” Bilal said. “We equally oppose anti-Semitism, anti-Palestinian sentiment and Islamophobia and accept the human dignity of all parties, knowing full well that further bloodshed will do nothing to secure lasting peace in the region.”
While the conflict in the Middle East was discussed repeatedly throughout the evening, the majority of the ceremony focused on literary themes such as literature’s ability to broaden perspectives and the dangers of censorship and the threat of increasing book bans.
The ceremony’s host, LeVar Burton, an actor and literacy activist who hosted the PBS series “Reading Rainbow” for more than 20 years, is pushing back against book bans and restrictions across the country, which are a growing problem for authors and publishers the past few years.
“There is a reason why books are under attack,” Burton said at the start of the ceremony. “That’s because they’re so powerful.”
After Burton’s opening speech, Oprah Winfrey, whose book club made her a major force in the literary world, took the stage and made a passionate plea against banning books. Winfrey described how book bans spread across the country often targeted titles that featured diverse characters and LGBTQ themes, arguing that censorship was driving polarization and dividing communities.
“Banning books means cutting us off from each other,” she said. “Banning books means strangling what sustains us and makes us better people: connection and compassion, empathy, understanding.”
Much of the evening, a black-tie evening at Cipriani Wall Street in New York, was dedicated to celebrating literature and the work of the National Book Foundation. This year’s awards ceremony was held for the 74th time and publishers submitted 1,931 books for consideration.
Ned Blackhawk won the nonfiction award for “The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of US History,” a retelling of U.S. history that focuses on Indigenous peoples and the intertwined stories of Native and non-Native people across five centuries told. from the Spanish colonial period to the late 20th century.
The Translated Literature Prize went to “The Words That Remain” by Stênio Gardel, translated from Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato and about an old man who thinks back to a secret romance he had with his teenage best friend .
“As I am here tonight as a gay man, receiving this award for a novel about another gay man’s journey to self-acceptance, I wanted to say to anyone who has ever felt wrong that your heart and your desire are true and you “I, like everyone else, deserve to live a full life and achieve impossible dreams,” said Gardel, who shared the award with his translator, in an emotional acceptance speech.
The Young Adult Literature Prize went to author and illustrator Dan Santat for “A First Time for Everything,” his graphic memoir about unpleasant middle school experiences inspired by a school trip to Europe.
The poetry winner, Craig Santos Perez, is from Guam and received the award for collection “from an unincorporated area.” [åmot]he said, hoping to inspire the next generation of Pacific Islander writers.
In addition to the awards announced Wednesday, the National Book Foundation presented two lifetime achievement awards. Rita Dove won the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters for her body of work, which includes 11 books of poetry. Dove was the United States’ first black poet laureate in the 1990s. The Literarian Award for distinguished service to the American literary community was presented to Paul Yamazaki, chief buyer at City Lights Booksellers & Publishers in San Francisco.
The topic of the war in Israel and Gaza was also occasionally raised. Poet Heid E. Erdrich, who introduced the poetry winner, noted that “the human suffering in Gaza is at the forefront of our minds” and noted that “poetry is what we reach for in our grief.”
A few days before the ceremony, rumors spread that a group of finalists wanted to make a statement about the war in Gaza, but sponsors and organizers didn’t know what that would mean. Two sponsors, Zibby Media and Book of the Month, decided not to attend the ceremony and Zibby Media withdrew its sponsorship entirely.
It’s not uncommon for politics and global events to dominate the conversations and speeches at the National Book Awards. In the past, winners have spoken out against racism in America, the lack of diversity in publishing and threats to free speech as book bans continue to rise across the country.
Since the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants and Israel’s subsequent military campaign in Gaza, literary and cultural institutions have been grappling with the question of how to respond to the conflict. Several literary events have been interrupted or canceled recently. On Monday evening, pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted a literary awards ceremony in Canada. At one point they took the stage and held a sign accusing Scotiabank, which funds the Scotiabank Giller Prize, of funding genocide. Some events featuring Palestinian artists and writers have been canceled or postponed, including at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
The collective call for a ceasefire was met with applause from some National Book Awards attendees, but the remarks did not appear to be as polarizing or disruptive as organizers had feared. After it was reported Tuesday that some sponsors planned to skip the ceremony, the National Book Foundation released a statement to quell the brewing controversy, pointing out that winners have made political statements in the past.
“Over the years, these speeches have been poignant, funny, moving, sometimes political and occasionally even controversial,” the statement said. “At their best, the words of these honored authors enrich, enlighten and inform us.”