Press - National Book Foundation

TODAY anchors share their picks for best summer reads

TODAY, July 2, 2018 - Lisa Lucas speaks with Jenna Bush Hager about the joy and importance of reading. The interview is part of TODAY's "Read More TODAY" series, which aims to get more Americans excited about reading.

HUD And National Book Foundation Work To Promote Reading In Public Housing

Weekend Edition Saturday, NPR, June 2018 - The National Book Foundation's Book Rich Environments program, which has helped put nearly 700,000 new, free books into the hands of families in public housing authorities across the country.

The Globalization of the National Book Awards

The New York Times, Books News, Jan. 31, 2018 - The National Book Awards, among the most prestigious literary prizes, are going global.

2017 National Book Award finalists revealed

CBS This Morning, October 4, 2017 - First on "CBS This Morning," we're announcing the finalists for the 2017 National Book Awards. Among the 20 finalists of the prestigious award, 15 are women.

“Make Art, and Fight the Power”: A Historically Black National Book Awards

New Yorker, November 17, 2016 - Coverage of the 2016 National Book Awards Ceremony.

Stop Saying Books Are Dead. They’re More Alive Than Ever

TIME Magazine, February 7, 2019 - “The book is dead,” is a refrain I hear constantly. I’ll run into people on the subway, in a taxi, in an airport, or wherever I might be and when I tell them what I do, they ask me “do people even still read anymore?” This simple question implies the very work I do at the National Book Foundation may not be worthwhile—or even possible.

Ta-Nehisi Coates Wins National Book Award for Nonfiction

The Wall Street Journal, November 18, 2015 - Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose book on race in America tapped into a pressing, national conversation, won the National Book Award for nonfiction Wednesday.

Lisa Lucas, head of the National Book Foundation, wants you to love reading

Los Angeles Times, May 27, 2016 - Lisa Lucas is a rare combination: a high-energy bookish extrovert.
"If I can convince a small fraction of people to feel the same way that I feel about reading," she said, "then I've done my job."

Brief but Spectacular - Lisa Lucas

PBS News Hour - Books "make people who are not like us more human," says Lisa Lucas, executive director of the National Book Foundation. She grew up loving books and their ability to make readers more empathetic to unfamiliar ideas and characters, even when all the reading is done in our bedrooms by ourselves. Lucas gives us her Brief but Spectacular take on how books can connect us to one another.

The National Book Foundation singles out the five best young writers in America

The Washington Post, September 24, 2018 - Think of it as the smallest, most prestigious fiction writers group in America: Every year, the National Book Foundation announces the winners of its 5 Under 35 award. Writers can’t be nominated; they don’t even know if they’re being considered until the call comes. Each of them is chosen by a former National Book Award winner or finalist.

Book Awards Honor Translated Literature For The First Time Since 1983

Morning Edition, NPR, November 15, 2018 - The U.S. publishing industry honored its stars Wednesday night in New York City at the National Book Awards. The lifetime achievement award went to Isabel Allende.

Sigrid Nunez’s novel “The Friend” wins National Book Award

AP News, November 15, 2018 - Sigrid Nunez’s “The Friend,” a meditative novel about grief, books and, not least, a Great Dane named Apollo, has won the National Book Award for fiction. Other winners Wednesday night included Jeffrey C. Stewart’s “The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke” for nonfiction and Justin Philip Reed’s “Indecency for poetry

The National Book Awards Redefined American Literature at This Year’s Ceremony

Vanity Fair, November 15, 2018 - The Oscars of the book world looked beyond American borders at Cipriani Wall Street Wednesday night.

Writers Put Trump on Blast at the National Book Awards

Host Nick Offerman and honoree Isabel Allende had harsh words about our political climate at the annual ceremony often called "book prom."

Finalists in fiction, non-fiction named for 2017 National Book Awards

USA Today, October 4, 2017 - The National Book Foundation has announced the 20 finalists for the 2017 National Book Award in fiction, non-fiction, young people's literature and poetry.

MINUTES: News & Notes

The New Republic, November 2016 - The National Book Awards are woke.

National Book Awards: Sigrid Nunez wins fiction prize as Isabel Allende is honoured

The Guardian, November 14, 2018 - Chilean-born author receives lifetime achievement award at ceremony celebrating diversity, truth and literature as healing forces in a dark time

Cambridge Poet Frank Bidart Wins National Book Award

The Boston Globe, November 17, 2017 · Frank Bidart, one of America's most respected living poets, won the National Book Award for poetry Wednesday for his latest work, "Half-Light: Collected Poems 1965-2016."

Announcing the National Book Foundation’s ‘5 Under 35’: This Year, They’re All Women

The CUT, September 25, 2017 - The Cut is thrilled to announce the National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35” for 2017. The annual prize recognizes five young debut fiction writers whose work “promises to leave an indelible mark on the literary landscape,” and each winner is selected by a writer previously honored by the foundation.

The 69th National Book Awards Reminded Us It’s a Big World Out There

Vulture, November 15, 2018 - During the cocktail hour of last night’s annual ceremony for the National Book Awards, the country’s most prestigious literary prize this side of the Pulitzer, agent Joy Harris had two things on her mind: the “mess in Washington,” and the thirst for good books.

Sigrid Nunez wins the 2018 National Book Award for The Friend

At the 2018 National Book Awards, all the prizes went to writers of color.

Jesmyn Ward is the first woman to win two National Book Awards for Fiction

Entertainment Weekly, November 16, 2017 - Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing was named the 2017 National Book Award winner in Fiction by four-time finalist Jacqueline Woodson, a judge in the category this year. Ward is the first woman to take home the award since 2012 (Louise Erdich), and was part of a general wave: Where last year all four winners were men, this year only one was (Frank Bidart, Poetry).

Jesmyn Ward, Masha Gessen, Robin Benway, and Frank Bidart Win National Book Awards

Slate, November 16, 2017 - Jesmyn Ward, Masha Gessen, Robin Benway, and Frank Bidart all won National Book Awards on Wednesday night, the New York Times reports. The writers were honored at a star-studded ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street hosted by actress Cynthia Nixon; presenters included Anne Hathaway and Bill Clinton.

The 2018 National Book Awards Finalists Are Here

Parade, October 10, 2018 - Bookworms, assemble! The National Book Foundation has announced the finalists for the 2018 National Book Awards, one of the most prestigious prizes in the literary world, in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature and young people’s literature.

Here Are The Winners Of The 2018 National Book Awards

Huffington Post, November 14, 2018 - Novelist Sigrid Nunez and poet Justin Phillip Reed were among those who took home top honors at Wednesday night’s National Book Award gala in New York, which recognized the best in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature and young people’s literature.

Book Rich Environments Initiative Is Trying To End "Book Deserts" By Putting Over 400,000 Books In The Hands Of Kids

Bustle, April 6, 2018 - Across the U.S., too many people live in "book deserts": places without bookstores and libraries in easy reach. These environments contribute to the so-called word gap — the disparity between the potential vocabularies of privileged and marginalized children — and this, in turn, leads to low test scores and literacy ratings among kids from book deserts. Now, the Book Rich Environments Initiative wants to put 422,000 books in the hands of the children who need them the most.

'Teach This Poem' is the winner of the Innovations in Reading Prize from the National Book Foundation

Mashable, May 10, 2018 - The National Book Foundation announced on Thursday the winner of the 2018 Innovations in Reading Prize, its annual social-impact-through-literature award.