Best national book award winners

See also Finalists for this award. The National Book Awards are a set of annual U. The National Book Awards were established in by the American Booksellers Association, abandoned during World War II, and re-established by three book industry organizations in Now they are presented to U. The nonprofit National Book Foundation was established in to administer and enhance the Book Awards and "move beyond [them] into the fields of education and literacy", primarily by sponsoring public appearances by writers. Its mission is "to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America. Jeffrey C.

The National Book Awards were first awarded to four publications in May Contrary to that historical fact, the National Book Foundation currently recognizes only a history of purely literary awards that begins in The pre-war awards and the to graphics awards are covered below following the main list of current award categories. The main list below is organized by the current award categories and by year. The four categories' winners are selected from hundreds of preliminary nominees.

Think of them as the Oscars for books. While accepting the award in , Ellison explained the significance of his groundbreaking novel about an African American whose skin color makes him invisible. And in just pages! Widely praised for its serious interpretation, the novel once again made the Holocaust a talking point among Americans, and for some, was the first time they had seen a swastika, according to The New York Times. As historian Theodore H.