A majority of this year’s finalists at the national book awards made a collective statement calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war at the ceremony in New York on Thursday, amid a storm behind the scenes as sponsors pulled out in anticipation.
Twenty of the 25 finalists up for the five categories – fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children’s literature and translated literature – got on stage as author Aaliyah Bilal, nominated in the fiction category for her novel Temple Folk, read out the prepared statement.
“On behalf of the finalists, we oppose the ongoing bombardment of Gaza and call for an humanitarian ceasefire to address the urgent humanitarian needs of Palestinian civilians, particularly children,” Bilal read.
“We oppose antisemitism and anti-Palestinian sentiment and Islamophobia equally, accepting the human dignity of all parties, knowing that further bloodshed does nothing to secure lasting peace in the region.”
On Wednesday, it was revealed that a sponsor had withdrawn from the event after the National Book Awards informed them of the expected action.
Zibby Owens, the CEO of sponsor Zibby Media, said she was “warned” that the nominees “had gotten together as a block and decided to use their platform when winning speeches to promote a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel agenda”, writing in a statement online that she believed the phrase “free Palestine” had “come to mean the antagonisation of an entire religion, not just a place”.
A second sponsor, book subscription service Book of the Month, told the New York Times it would not attend the ceremony, but would continue to support the event.
Historian Ned Blackhawk, winner of the nonfiction prize for his book, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of US History, alluded to the dispute in his speech, saying he was “deeply appreciative of the spirit of generosity, the kind of collaborative support and the really intense solidarity that all of the finalists have displayed over the past two days”.
The fiction category was won by Justin Torres for Blackouts, described in the Guardian as a “strange and glorious” novel centred around a real study of LGBT people in the 1930s. “Imagine Scheherazade plucking her stories from the Kinsey Report; Kiss of the Spider Woman restaged in a psychiatric hospital; the Old Testament rewritten by Tennessee Williams,” wrote reviewer Beejay Silcox.
The young people’s category was won by author and illustrator Dan Santat for his comic book memoir A First Time for Everything, about a childhood trip to Europe that changed his life.
Craig Santos Perez, a Chamorro poet from Guam, won the poetry category for his collection From Unincorporated Territory [åmot].
Brazilian author Stênio Gardel and translator Bruna Dantas Lobato won the translated literature category for The Words That Remain, a novel about homophobia and poverty in Brazil’s hinterlands.
The rise in book bans across the US, at the behest of increasingly powerful conservative parent groups, were on the minds of many on Thursday. “Before we get going, are there any Moms for Liberty in the house?” host LeVar Burton asked the crowd in his opening speech, naming the group that has campaigned against the inclusion of books about ethnic minorities and LGBT people in curricula. “No? Good. Then hands will not need to be thrown tonight,” he joked.
“To ban book is to snuff up the flame of truth, of what it means to be alive, what it means to be engaged in the world,” said Oprah, who also took the stage. “Let us let everyone chose for themselves what they want to read. That is called freedom.”
Now in its 74th year, the national book awards are regarded as one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the US. The prize ceremony is frequently used as a chance for authors to speak about political matters that move them, though the Israel-Hamas war has divided the literary world in its responses.
Last month the 92NY, a venue for many literary events in New York, was criticised for cancelling an appearance by the novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen after he signed an open letter criticising Israel’s military response. Several writers pulled out of events at 92Y and staff members resigned.
And the Frankfurt book fair was criticised after it postponed an event honouring the Palestinian author Adania Shibli that had been announced months before, “due to the war started by Hamas, under which millions of people in Israel and Palestine are suffering”. Shibli later said the organisers had falsely claimed she supported the postponement.
More than 1,500 authors and publishers signed a letter protesting the decision, with philosopher Slavoj Žižek using his opening speech at Frankfurt to call it “scandalous”.
