Novelist Rabih Alameddine, poet Patricia Smith win National Book Awards

Rabih Alameddine’s blend of family comedy and wartime tragedy, “The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother),” has won the National Book Award for fiction.

The nonfiction prize on Wednesday (November 19, 2025) night was given to Omar El Akkad’s “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” while the poetry winner was Patricia Smith’s “The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems.”

Daniel Nayeri’s “The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story” won for young people’s literature and Gabriela Cabezón Cámara’s “We Are Green and Trembling,” translated from the Spanish by Robin Myers, was cited for translated literature.

Hundreds of writers, publishers, editors and other industry professionals gathered at Cipriani Wall Street in Manhattan for a dinner ceremony that included honourary awards for fiction writer George Saunders and author-publisher-mentor Roxane Gay.

The 76th annual National Book Awards, the so-called Oscars of book publishing, were a celebration and a performance. Musical guest Corinne Rae Bailey opened the ceremony with a relaxed, funky “Put Your Records On,” and introduced host Jeff Heller, who greeted the “glitterati of the literati.”

The Emmy-winning actor joked that he wasn’t sure why he was the host, thanked everyone from celebrities who lead book clubs to independent store owners and lamented that a typo in early editions of his recent book, “A Certain Actress,” left some readers thinking he had published “A Cetain Actress.” “Can you imagine Madeleine L’Engle discovering the cover of her book read A Wrinkle in Tim’?”

The National Book Awards were presented by the nonprofit National Book Foundation. Each competitive category was voted on by judging panels that include writers, booksellers and critics. They select winners from hundreds of books submitted by publishers.