The winners of the 2024 National Book Awards were announced Wednesday evening at a ceremony in New York hosted by actor and author Kate McKinnon. Pervival Everett, Jason De Léon, and Shifa Saltagi Safadi were among the authors to take home this year’s prizes.
Percival Everett won the fiction award for James, published by Doubleday. The novel, which won the Kirkus Prize and was a finalist for the Booker Prize, is a reimagining of Mark Twain’s classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the enslaved man, Jim, who accompanies Huck on his journey down the Mississippi River. “One of the noblest characters in American literature gets a novel worthy of him,” wrote a Kirkus critic in a starred review.
The award for translated literature went to Taiwan Travelogue, written by Yáng Shuāng-Zǐ, translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lily King, and published by Graywolf. A Kirkus critic called the novel, about a fictional Japanese writer exploring 1930s Taiwan, a “moving account of friendship in the shadow of the Japanese Southern Expansion policy.”
Jason De León won the nonfiction award for Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling, published by Viking, about the people who bring migrants from Central America through Mexico into the United States. Kirkus’ starred review called the book an “exemplary ethnography of central importance to any discussion of immigration policy or reform.”
The award for young people’s literature was presented to Shifa Saltagi Safadi for Kareem Between, published by Putnam. In a starred review, a Kirkus critic called this middle-grade verse novel, about a Syrian American Muslim boy who feels stuck between worlds, a “masterfully written, deeply resonant tale.”
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha won the poetry award for her collection Something About Living, published by University of Akron Press.
Two special lifetime achievement awards, both previously announced, were presented as well. W. Paul Coates, founder of Black Classic Press, received the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. The award, originally scheduled to be presented by Coates’ son, author Ta-Nahesi Coates, was instead presented by novelist Walter Mosley. The Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters was awarded to Barbara Kingsolver, author Demon Copperhead, The Poisonwood Bible, and other books.
Tom Beer is the editor-in-chief.
