The 2019 National Book Award Winners have been announced!

The 2019 National Book Award Winners have been announced! The winners of the 2019 National Book Awards have been announced! In his rousing speech to open the 70th National Book Awards, acclaimed literary advocate and host  LeVar Burton stated, It is storytelling that holds our civilization together. And in a year where none of the 25 finalists had previously won a National Book Award and the majority of the finalists were first time nominees, it was a night of storytelling, of new storiesâ€"a night where the winners told their stories of how they came to be there, the struggles and inspirations, and people along the way. Winner of the nonfiction award for her memoir The Yellow House, Sarah M. Broom spoke movingly of her mother and her presence in Brooms life and memoir. And Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai, winner of the translated literature award now in its second year in this iteration, thanked the foundation for the creation of the award and his  translator Ottilie Mulzet, saying that through translators international writers can also be at home in America. Among the other stories told was that of Oren J. Teicher,  chief executive at the American Booksellers Association, who won this years Literarian Award for service to the wider literary community. The award was presented by author and bookstore co-owner Ann Patchett who remarked on Teichers tradition of working at  the counters of various independent bookstores during the busy holiday season. And novelist and activist Edmund White who won the award  for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, a lifetime achievement award, for his pioneering contributions to gay literature. His award was presented by the author and director John Waters. Watch all 25 #NBAwards Finalists read from their honored books at last night’s NBA Finalists reading: https://t.co/uheCQJRwoz National Book Foundation (@nationalbook) November 21, 2019 And now to present the winners  in each of the five categoriesâ€"Young People’s Literature, Translated Literature, Poetry, Nonfiction, and Fiction! Young Peoples Literature Pet by Akwaeke Emezi Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks  by Jason Reynolds Patron Saints of Nothing  by Randy Ribay Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All  by Laura Ruby 1919 The Year That Changed America by Martin W. Sandler (Winner) Judges this year: Elana K. Arnold, Kristen Gilligan, Varian Johnson, An Na (Chair), and Deborah Taylor Translated Literature Death Is Hard Work  by Khaled Khalifa Translated from the Arabic by  Leri Price Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming  by László Krasznahorkai  Translated from the Hungarian by  Ottilie Mulzet (Winner) The Barefoot Woman  by Scholastique Mukasonga Translated from the French by  Jordan Stump The Memory Police  by Yoko Ogawa Translated from the Japanese by  Stephen Snyder Crossing  by Pajtim Statovci Translated from the Finnish by  David Hackston Judges this year: Keith Gessen, Elisabeth Jaquette, Katie Kitamura, Idra Novey (Chair), and Shuchi Saraswat Poetry The Tradition  by Jericho Brown I: New and Selected Poems by Toi Derricotte Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky Be Recorder by Carmen Giménez Smith Sight Lines  by Arthur Sze (Winner) Judges this year: Jos Charles, John Evans, Vievee Francis, Cathy Park Hong, and Mark Wunderlich (Chair) Nonfiction The Yellow House  by Sarah M. Broom (Winner) Thick: And Other Essays  by Tressie McMillan Cottom What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistanceby Carolyn Forché The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present  by David Treuer Solitary  by Albert Woodfox  with  Leslie George Judges this year: Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Carolyn Kellog, Mark Laframboise, Kiese Laymon, and Jeff Sharlet (Chair) FICTION Trust Exercise by Susan Choi (Winner) Sabrina Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstine Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James The Other Americans by Laila Lalami Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips Judges this year: Dorothy Allison, Ruth Dickey, Javier Ramirez, Danzy Senna (Chair), and Jeff VanderMeer Curious about the other nominated titles? Looking for more great recommendations? Check out the 2019 National Book Awards Longlists. Sign up to Today In Books to receive  daily news and miscellany from the world of books.