Books Honored by the National Book Foundation

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.

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4 Books Honored by the National Book Foundation in 2011

Winner - Fiction

Salvage the Bones
by Jesmyn Ward

Publication Date: Apr 24, 2012
List Price: $17.00
Format: Paperback, 288 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781608196265
Imprint: Bloomsbury USA
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Parent Company: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Winner - Poetry

Head Off & Split: Poems
by Nikky Finney

Publication Date: Jan 27, 2011
List Price: $16.95
Format: Paperback, 116 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9780810152168
Imprint: TriQuarterly Books
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
Parent Company: Northwestern University

Finalist - Nonfiction

Malcolm X: A Life Of Reinvention
by Manning Marable

Publication Date: Apr 04, 2011
List Price: $30.00
Format: Hardcover, 608 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780670022205
Imprint: Knopf
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann

Read Our Review of Malcolm X: A Life Of Reinvention


Finalist - Poetry

The Chameleon Couch: Poems
by Yusef Komunyakaa

    Publication Date: Mar 15, 2011
    List Price: $24.00
    Format: Hardcover, 128 pages
    Classification: Poetry
    ISBN13: 9780374120382
    Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
    Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
    Parent Company: Holtzbrinck Publishing Group