9 months ago
National Book Awards 2022: Alameddine, Smith, El Akkad Win
The National Book Awards, often called the 'Oscars of book publishing', were held on November 17.
Authors Rabih Alameddine, Omar El Akkad, Patricia Smith, Daniel Nayeri, and Gabriela Cabezón Cámara won awards in different categories.
The event was hosted by Jeff Heller and featured a musical performance by Corinne Rae Bailey.
Rabih Alameddine won the fiction award for 'The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)'
Omar El Akkad won the nonfiction award for 'One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This'
Patricia Smith won the poetry award for 'The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems'
Daniel Nayeri won the young people's literature award for 'The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story'
Gabriela Cabezón Cámara won the translated literature award for 'We Are Green and Trembling'
- Who
- Rabih Alameddine, Omar El Akkad, Patricia Smith, Daniel Nayeri, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, Jeff Heller, Corinne Rae Bailey
- What
- Won the National Book Awards or hosted the event
- Where
- Cipriani Wall Street, Manhattan
- When
- November 17, 2022
- Why
- To recognize outstanding literary works published in the United States
Key facts
- Event
- National Book Awards
- Year
- 2022
- Host
- Jeff Heller
- Musical Guest
- Corinne Rae Bailey
- Venue
- Cipriani Wall Street, Manhattan
Quotes
Rabih Alameddine
Lebanese novelist and winner of the 2025 National Book Award for Fiction
“I’m going to speak in Spanish because there are fascists who don’t like that.”
indianexpress.com
“I began with a lament for the bombing of a Palestinian refugee camp, but went on to joke about the demands of my agent, Nicole Aragi, and thank everyone from my gastrointestinal doctor to the psychiatrist who has been telling me to get over myself for more than 20 years.”
indianexpress.com
Gabriela Cabezón Cámara
Argentine author and winner of the 2025 National Book Award for Translated Literature
“I’m going to speak in Spanish because there are fascists who don’t like that.”
indianexpress.com
Omar El Akkad
Canadian Iranian novelist-journalist and winner of the 2025 National Book Award for Nonfiction
“It’s difficult to think in celebratory terms about a book that was written in response to a genocide (in Gaza). It’s difficult to think in celebratory terms when I spent two years seeing what shrapnel does to a child’s body.”
indianexpress.com
Patricia Smith
Chicago-born poet and winner of the 2025 National Book Award for Poetry
“I offer a litany of racial and social barriers I confronted, including harsh words from my ailing mother, while offering tribute to poetry as a path to transcendence.”
indianexpress.com
George Saunders
Fiction writer and recipient of the 2025 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
“We’re open to finding out how things actually are, not how we think they are, not how we wish they are, but how they actually are. And this puts us in a less delusional relation to reality.”
indianexpress.com
Roxane Gay
Author-publisher-mentor and recipient of the 2025 Literarian Award
“There is room for all of our voices and there are people in this very room who have the power to do better. You have the power to abandon old ways of thinking and nonsense metrics like social media followings as a determining factor in buying a manuscript.”
indianexpress.com
