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Sigrid Nunez won first prize at the prestigious National Book Awards in New York on Wednesday night, winning the fiction category for her seventh novel, The Friend, about a woman in mourning for the loss of her literary mentor well- loved as she inherits her dog in mourning: a German mastiff of 180 pounds.
Nunez beat Jamel Brinkley's short story collection, A Lucky Man; Florida by Lauren Groff; Where the dead are sitting talking by Brandon Hobson; and the great believers of Rebecca Makkai.
In accepting the award, she quoted British writer Alan Bennett, who said: "For a writer, nothing is ever as serious as for other people, even if it is terrible, it can be useful. "
Nunez continued, "I became a writer not because I was looking for a community, but because I thought it was something that I could do alone and hidden in the privacy of my own room. How lucky to have discovered that writing books made the miracle possible: to be far from the world and to be part of the world at the same time. "
The event was hosted by Nick Offerman, occasionally on occasion obscene, which began with a speech praising literature in a dark time – a theme that lasted all evening. "At a time when our first-amendment rights and the truth itself are under great threat, books remain the ultimate repository of creative ideas and irreplaceable knowledge," he said. "What can I say, they make me horny."
Jeffrey C Stewart won the fictional award for New New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke, a biography of Locke, who became the first black scholar of Rhodes in 1907 and who is often considered the father of the " Harlem revival.
"As a gay man who lived a closed life, [Locke] had a lot of struggles, and one of them was with overwhelming loneliness, "says Stewart. "So when I stand here, I think of his feat and what it was to create a family of writers, artists, dancers and playwrights and call it The New Negro. The foundation for a new creative future – not just for blacks. A new Negro for the new America. "
Poet poet X and author Elizabeth Acevedo won the prize in the youth literature category. This novel in verse tells the story of an Afro-Latina girl from Harlem who turns to slam poetry to make sense of the world around her.
Acevedo, who grew up in a Dominican home, said: "As a child of immigrants, as a black woman, as a Latin, as a person whose accented voice holds certain neighborhoods … I always feel that I have to prove that I am worthy enough.
"There will never be any reward or praise that will take me away from it, that's how I travel the world … but every time I meet a reader who tells me Looks and says: "I've never seen my story before I read yours," It reminds me why it's important. "
The prize for poetry was won by queer black poet Justin Phillip Reed for his first collection of poetry, Indecency.
"I do not think I have been so little breathed since an asthma attack that I have not had it in a while, so it's a very nostalgic experience to be here," he said. he declared. "I meditated on the courage it might take to feel worthy of it, and now I stand here with ancestral hands on my shoulders, still not knowing what to do with [it]. "
This year, the foundation has added a fifth category of translated literature ("Suck on that," banished Offerman), including drama and non-fiction from around the world. One hundred and forty books were read in the judgment of the category, which was won by The Emissary of the Japanese writer Yoko Tawada: a dystopian novel set in Japan after a mysterious disaster, translated by Margaret Mitsutani.
The National Book Awards were created in 1950 and have been run by the National Book Foundation since 1988. Ten of the 25 finalists were published by independent presses; each receives $ 1,000 and each author earns $ 10,000.
Isabel Allende became the first Spanish-speaking author to receive the Ensemble Achievement Award for her outstanding contribution to American letters, which had been won by John Updike, Toni Morrison, Joan Didion and Tom Wolfe. Allende is the bestselling author who writes in Spanish around the world today and has sold more than 70 million copies of his work.
The award was presented by Pulitzer Prize finalist Luís Alberto Urrea, who congratulated Allende as a personal hero, without whom his own career would not have been possible. "You have set the bar high for us, for those who were wondering if anyone would ever read their words," he said. "For those of us who could have grown up dreaming in Spanish. For my sisters, you showed the way. You made it possible.
In accepting the award with an enthusiastic and political speech that inspired an ovation, Allende dedicated his prize to "millions of people like me who came to this country in search of a new life".
She added, "I have Chilean air and I dream, cook, make love and write in Spanish. Do love – you would be ridiculous in English, "she says with a laugh. "My lover does not speak a word of Spanish. I have a lover at 76 years old! You would not believe it. This is a brave man. "
Allende was born in Chile and spent 13 years as a political refugee in Venezuela. she has been an immigrant in the United States for more than 30 years.
"I refuse to live in fear – let alone vote in fear," she said. "It's a dark time, my friends. It is a time of war in many places and a potential war everywhere. A period of nationalism and racism; of cruelty and fanaticism. A time when the values and principles that support our civilization are besieged. It is a period of violence and poverty for many; masses of people, who are forced to leave all that is familiar to them and undertake dangerous journeys to save their lives. "
She reminded the audience Alan Kurdi, the toddler whose body was found on a beach after his family escaped the war in Syria. "Alan Kurdi symbolized the fate of millions of desperate people. For a moment, the world was shaken by the image … But the world soon forgot. I write to preserve memory. "
She continued, "I'm just part of this massive diaspora, and although I criticize a lot about this country, I'm proud to be an American citizen. This national award is an extraordinary gift for me. That means I may not be an alien after all. That means maybe it's time to plant my roots and relax … Maybe I found a place where I can belong. Maybe I'm not going anywhere anymore. "
Author Doron Weber, Vice-President and Program Director of the Alfred P Sloan Foundation, a non-profit philanthropic organization that supports research and education in the fields of science, technology and technology. economy, has been rewarded for its outstanding services to the United States literary community. The award, which had already been won by Maya Angelou and Dave Eggers, was presented by Human Computer Project founder Margot Lee Shetterly, whose book Hidden Figures, on Nasa's Black Mathematical Women, has been awarded the prize. a grant from the Sloan Foundation.
"We need to preserve the creative freedom of writers from all walks of life and all forms of non-partisan knowledge," said Weber in a major speech on the urgency of protecting and communicating science as we "Let's fight together to repair the world."
"We can not progress without science or begin to understand modern life."
The winners of the 2018 National Book Award
fiction
Winner: The friend of Sigrid Nunez
A lucky man: Stories of Jamel Brinkley
Florida by Lauren Groff
Where the dead are sitting talking by Brandon Hobson
The great believers of Rebecca Makkai
Non-fiction
Winner: The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey C Stewart
The Indian world of George Washington: the first president, the first Americans and the birth of the nation by Colin G Calloway
American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the First Republic by Victoria Johnson
Heartland: Memory of working hard and being broke in the richest country in the world by Sarah Smarsh
We Companies: How American Companies Were Enabled by Adam Winkler
Poetry
Winner: Indecency by Justin Phillip Reed
Wobble of Rae Armantrout
American sonnets for my past and future assassin of Terrance Hayes
Ghost Of by Diana Khoi Nguyen
Eye Level by Jenny Xie
Youth literature
Winner: The poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
The assassination of Brangwain Spurge by MT Anderson and Eugene Yelchin
The truth told by Mason Buttle by Leslie Connor
The journey of Little Charlie by Christopher Paul Curtis
Hey, Kiddo from Jarrett J Krosoczka
Translated literature
Winner: The emissary of Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani
Disoriental of Négar Djavadi, translated by Tina Kover
The love of Hanne Ørstavik, translated by Martin Aitken
Trick by Domenico Starnone, translated by Jhumpa Lahiri
Flights from Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft
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