National Book Award: Winners, Finalists and Longlisted Titles

National Book Award Medals

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.

Here we highlight the winners of African descent. The first African-American writer to win a National Book Award was Ralph Ellison, in 1953, for Invisible Man.

Check Out AALBC’s Coverage of the National Book Awards:  2024202320172016201520142013


One Book Honored by the National Book Foundation in 1979

Finalist - Poetry

American Journal: Poems
by Robert Hayden

    List Price: $14.95
    Liveright (Jan 17, 1982)
    Poetry, Paperback, 72 pages
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