Books Honored by the National Book Foundation

The mission of the National Book Foundation is to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of great writing in America. National Book Awards are given five categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature.

The first African-American writer to win a National Book Award was Ralph Ellison for Invisible Man.

Check Out AALBC’s Coverage of the National Book Awards:  2017 – 2016 – 2015 – 2014 – 2013

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One Book Honored by the National Book Foundation in 1976

Finalist - Poetry

Book Description: 

The idea of crossing over to a new way of life provides the substance that Rodgers explicitly longed for in several poems of self-doubt about her writing. Her third book takes its title from this concern: How I Got Ovah (1975) collects new and selected poems in a volume that marks a turning point in Rodgers's career. Like Giovanni and Sanchez, Rodgers rejects the official hatred of the liberation movement and embraces love. "Some of Me Beauty" (53) recalls and dismisses her revolutionary persona:

the fact is
that i don't hate any body any more
i went through my mean period.

Now, however, she awakes to find herself

carolyn
not imani man jua or soul sister poetess of
the moment
i saw more than a "sister". . .
i saw a Woman. human.
and black.
i felt a spiritual transformation
a root revival of love.

The correlation between a spiritual transformation and the revival of love is critical.  Read the full review and more written about by Karen Ford.