National Book Foundation

[National Book Foundation]

Where Community Equals Survival: Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage The Bones Vs. Beasts Of A Southern Wild

Ward’s depiction of brotherly devotion is incredibly moving, and the community’s response to the devastation affirms the humanity of Gulf Coast residents… To read more

—Zetta Elliott

[National Book Foundation]

This “game of property” is as relevant now as it was in the 1800s, the century in which the novel is set, as the value of human life continues to fluctuate according to the dividends it can yield.

Nicole Sealey, a Programs Director at Cave Canem Foundation, reflects on reading the historical novel Middle Passage by Charles Johnson, which won the #NBAwards in Fiction in 1990. 

[National Book Foundation]

I had not, at the age of eighteen, read a single novel that communicated as much about the tragic and ludicrous function of racism in this country.

Angela Flournoy, a National Book Award Finalist and 5 Under 35 Honoree, reflects on Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.

[National Book Foundation]

In celebration of Toni Morrison’s birthday, NBF is posting quotes throughout the day from her speech “The Dancing Mind”,  delivered on her acceptance of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters on November 6, 1996. 

[National Book Foundation]

Happy birthday, Toni Morrison!

In celebration of Toni Morrison’s birthday, NBF is posting quotes throughout the day from her speech “The Dancing Mind”,  delivered on her acceptance of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters on November 6, 1996.

[National Book Foundation]

In celebration of Toni Morrison’s birthday, NBF will post quotes throughout the day from her speech “The Dancing Mind”,  delivered on her acceptance of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters on November 6, 1996.

[National Book Foundation]

[nationalbook]

In honor of Black History Month, and for the second consecutive year, NBF presents a timeline of the first African Americans to become National Book Award honored authors.

[National Book Foundation]

#TBT to 1953, the year Ralph Ellison became the first African American to win a National Book Award for the now classic novel Invisible Man. Upon accepting the award, Ellison said “I was to dream of a prose which was flexible and swift as American change is swift, confronting the inequalities and brutalities of our society forthrightly, but yet thrusting forth it’s images of hope, human fraternity, and individual self realization.” Read Ellison’s speech here.

[National Book Foundation]

[National Book Foundation]

Harvard University sociologist Orlando Patterson with (from left) Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Ralph Ellison, and Ellison’s wife Fanny at the 1991 National Book Awards.

That night, Patterson made history when he became the first African American to win a National Book Award for Nonfiction for his groundbreaking history book, Freedom in the Making of Western Culture.

[National Book Foundation]

First edition of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man on display at Penguin Random House’s headquarters. Ellison was the first African American writer to win a National Book Award.