I’ve often said that being a poet means leaving a record of what it meant and felt like to have lived in a human body for a particular time on Earth. The fact that no one person can represent all of the human condition means there’s a need for as many voices as possible, to provide an accurate history of a given period. But the history of poetry, in this country at least, was for so long marked by a narrowness of definition — basically the poetics represented by the White male English canon — and by a narrowness of “suitable” content, reflective of a Puritanism that has never entirely gone away from life in the United States: no sexual candor, therefore, no racial unrest, no room for voices that might question the status quo by demanding inclusion, by refusing silence.
To reflect upon the rich 75-year history of the National Book Awards, the National Book Foundation collaborated with The Washington Post on the essay series “75 Years: US Literature and the National Book Awards”—an opportunity for National Book Award–honored authors to capture and examine, collectively, more than seven decades of US literary history through the lens of the Awards.
Each writer takes on a decade of Awards’ history, considering the books that were recognized, as well as notable works that may have been overlooked. Through their reflections on the National Book Awards archive, these writers explore the preoccupations of authors, readers, and the publishing industry through time, while simultaneously interrogating the power and subjectivity of judges and of awards. Above all, their words underscore the lasting importance of books to our culture, from the 1950s to present day.
