The mission of the National Book Foundation and the National Book Awards is to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of great writing in America.
On March 16, 1950, publishers, editors, writers, and critics gathered at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City to celebrate the first annual National Book Awards, an award given to writers by writers. The American Book Publisher’s Council, The Book Manufacturers’ Institute, and The American Booksellers’ Association jointly sponsored the Awards, bringing together the American literary community for the first time to honor the year’s best work in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. As the Boston Herald reported the following day, “literary history was indeed in the making.”
The National Book Awards (NBA) quickly established a reputation for recognizing literary excellence, awarding William Carlos Williams the first poetry prize for Paterson: Book III and Selected Poems. Within a mere decade the NBA would acknowledge the work of writers such as William Faulkner, Saul Bellow, Wallace Stevens, Rachel Carson, Ralph Ellison, W.H. Auden, Marianne Moore, and Bernard Malamud – authors who have helped shape the foundation of American literature.
From the mid-sixties through the seventies, the NBA expanded, adding new award categories for Science, Philosophy and Religion, History and Biography, Arts and Letters, Translation, Contemporary Thought, Autobiography, First Novel, Original Paperback, and Children’s Books.
More than sixty years since its creation, the National Book Awards continues to recognize the best of American literature, raise the cultural appreciation of great writing, promote the enduring value of reading, and advance the careers of established and emerging writers.
The Foundation's Executive Director, Lisa Lucas discusses the Foundation, the communal nature of books and reading, and the importance of life-long reading.
Video courtesy of PBS NewsHour.
Books “make people who are not like us more human,” says Lisa Lucas, executive director of the National Book Foundation. She grew up loving books and their ability to make readers more empathetic to unfamiliar ideas and characters, even when all the reading is done in our bedrooms by ourselves. Lucas gives us her Brief but Spectacular take on how books can connect us to one another.
The National Book Foundation thanks sponsors for their generous support.
The National Book Awards (NBA) quickly established a reputation for recognizing literary excellence, awarding William Carlos Williams the first poetry prize for Paterson: Book III and Selected Poems. Within a mere decade the NBA would acknowledge the work of writers such as William Faulkner, Saul Bellow, Wallace Stevens, Rachel Carson, Ralph Ellison, W.H. Auden, Marianne Moore, and Bernard Malamud – authors who have helped shape the foundation of American literature.
From the mid-sixties through the seventies, the NBA expanded, adding new award categories for Science, Philosophy and Religion, History and Biography, Arts and Letters, Translation, Contemporary Thought, Autobiography, First Novel, Original Paperback, and Children’s Books.
More than sixty years since its creation, the National Book Awards continues to recognize the best of American literature, raise the cultural appreciation of great writing, promote the enduring value of reading, and advance the careers of established and emerging writers.
'Brief but Spectacular'National Book Foundation, Presenter of the National Book Awards, www.nationalbook.org
In anticipation of the 2017 Awards (winners will be announced in NYC on November 15), four authors previously recognized by the Awards will share their work: Laurie Halse Anderson ( Ashes), Ibram X. Kendi ( Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America), Karan Mahajan ( The Association of Small Bombs), and Monica Youn ( Blackacre).
The Foundation's Executive Director, Lisa Lucas discusses the Foundation, the communal nature of books and reading, and the importance of life-long reading.
Video courtesy of PBS NewsHour.
Books “make people who are not like us more human,” says Lisa Lucas, executive director of the National Book Foundation. She grew up loving books and their ability to make readers more empathetic to unfamiliar ideas and characters, even when all the reading is done in our bedrooms by ourselves. Lucas gives us her Brief but Spectacular take on how books can connect us to one another.
The National Book Foundation thanks sponsors for their generous support.
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