The awards ceremony was opened and hosted by Padma Lakshmi, an award-winning producer of the Hulu docuseries Taste the Nation and a New York Times bestselling author. In her remarks, she took the opportunity to address the ongoing book banning efforts. “Today, books like mine are under attack…The main books targeted discussed LGBTQ+ themes or characters, have protagonists of color, address issues of race and racism, or all three…this rise in book banning isn’t simply from a few concerned parents. It’s a massive censorship campaign from organizations working with state and local officials to restrict access to books, and it coincides with the passage of the parental rights in education law in Florida or the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law.” Lakshmi went on to say that deciding what books are in school libraries is the job of librarians, not politicians. “It’s not the job of politicians to want to continue to whitewash this country.” Then, she revealed that when doing the research for her Hulu show, she had discovered there was so much about the country’s history that she did not learn in school, but should have. She admitted that she needed to learn more about Indigenous history, immigrant history, and institutional racism. “I don’t want my daughter to be shielded from history. I want her to have access to what was missing from my classrooms. I want kids of her generation to learn the truth and not just the truth that isn’t painful. Looking at the truth of our history, of who we were and who we are now as a country, are the first steps to understanding and reconciling the past sins of our nation. But we can’t learn those lessons if we’re not even allowed to open those books.” Before revealing the winners of this year’s National Book Awards, Ibram X. Kendi presented Tracie D. Hall with the 2022 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community, while Neil Gaiman presented the 2022 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters to Art Spiegelman. The winners of the 2022 National Book Awards are as follows: This year’s Fiction judges were Michelle Malonzo, Pam Houston, Dana Johnson, Brandon Hobson, and Ben Fountain. The Nonfiction category was judged this year by Carol Anderson, Melissa Febos, Thor Hanson, Janet Webster Jones, and Oscar Villalon. This year’s Poetry judges were Kwame Dawes, Juan Felipe Herrera, Keetje Kuipers, January Gill O’Neil, and Mai Der Vang. Russell Scott Valentino, Veronica Esposito, Ann Goldstein, Rohan Kamicheril, and Nick Buzanski were this year’s Translated Literature judges. Lilliam Rivera, Becky Albertalli, Joseph Bruchac, Meghan Dietsche Goel, and Jewell Parker Rhodes were this year’s Young People’s Literature judges. The National Book Awards, established in 1950, recognize outstanding works of writing by American authors. Find more literary awards news in Breaking In Books and the news archives.
