Jason Mott Wins National Book Award for ‘Hell of a Book’

“I would like to dedicate this award to all the other mad kids, to all the outsiders, the weirdos, the bullied,” he said in his speech.

The judges called it “a brilliant, original work,” examining a compilation of lives “that ordinary archives suppress.” Dr.

In her speech, she thanked her editor, Molly Turpin, recounting how when she first said over coffee that she wanted to write a book about “an old bag,” her editor was delighted.

This year’s ceremony was hosted by Phoebe Robinson, a comedian and the founder of Tiny Reparations Books, an imprint at Penguin Random House devoted to diverse voices.

This was the second annual National Book Awards ceremony held remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic, with Ms. Robinson recording from the Penguin Random House headquarters in New York City and authors and presenters beaming in remotely.

Nonfiction finalists included “A Little Devil in America,” an essay collection by Hanif Abdurraqib celebrating Black performers and artists; “Running Out,” by Lucas Bessire, about a Kansas aquifer at risk of depletion and its impact on the area’s farmers and ranchers; “Tastes Like War,” a memoir by Grace M.

The award for young people’s literature went to “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” by Malinda Lo, which follows a queer 17-year-old in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the Red Scare who is falling in love for the first time.

Karen Tei Yamashita, the author of eight books, including “Sansei and Sensibility,” “Tropic of Orange” and “Letters to Memory,” received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, an award that has previously gone to Toni Morrison, Walter Mosley and Maxine Hong Kingston.

“Ideas are dangerous and transformative,” she said in her speech.

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