'Redeployment,' 'Age Of Ambition' Win National Book Awards
At a New York City ceremony packed as much with jabs at Amazon as with jazzy entrance music, the National Book Foundation crowned a newcomer. Former Marine Phil Klay took home the National Book Award for fiction, winning the prize for his debut short story collection Redeployment.
Phil Klay attends 2014 National Book Awards on Wednesday in New York City. His collection of short stories, Redeployment, won the award for fiction. (Photo by Robin Marchant/Getty Images)
Klay, who had been deployed in Iraq, appeared taken aback by the honor on stage.
"I can't think of a more important conversation to be having — war's too strange to be processed alone," he said in his acceptance speech. "I want to thank everyone who picked up the book, who read it and decided to join the conversation."
Across a dozen stories told in first-person, Redeployment is at its heart a meditation on war — and the responsibility that everyone, especially the average citizen, bears for it. The book beat out a shortlist that included Marilynne Robinson, one of literature's most celebrated living writers and the favorite coming into the night. Also on the shortlist were Emily St. John Mandel, Anthony Doerr and Rabih Alameddine.
Meanwhile, judges went for a literary heavyweight in the poetry category, selecting Louise Gluck's Faithful and Virtuous Night. Gluck has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize, and had been nominated for the National Book Award before — but this year marks Gluck's first NBA win.
"It's very difficult to lose — I've lost many times. And it also, it turns out, is very difficult to win," Gluck said. "It's not in my script."
Journalist Evan Osnos won the National Book Award in nonfiction for his impressively subtitled book, Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China. Long the Beijing correspondent for the New Yorker, Osnos explored the tensions that define a modern China torn between economic expansion and authoritarian politics.
Osnos dedicated his victory to the people he wrote about. "They live in a place where it is very dangerous to be honest, to be vulnerable, and they allowed me to write about them, and I've tried to do them justice."
In a unanimous decision, the judges honored Jacqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming in the young people's literature category. Woodson's memoir traces the tale of her own youth in verse, applying lines of poetry to issues of race and faith in the midst of Jim Crow and the burgeoning Civil Rights movement.
Jacqueline Woodson attends 2014 National Book Awards.
Despite these wins, in many ways the 65th National Book Awards ceremony still belonged to beloved fantasy author Ursula K. Le Guin. LeGuin, the author of such classics as The Left Hand of Darkness and the Earthsea novels, got a standing ovation when she came on stage to accept an award for distinguished contributions to American letters.
Once she was onstage, she pulled no punches in a fiery speech about art and commerce. "We just saw a profiteer try to punish a publisher for disobedience, and writers threatened by corporate fatwa," LeGuin said. "And I see a lot of us, the producers, accepting this — letting commodity profiteers sell us like deodorant!"
She was referring to the recent dispute between Amazon and the publisher Hachette over e-book pricing. The power of capitalism can seem inescapable, LeGuin said, but resistance and change begin in art. And writers should demand their fair share of the proceeds from their work.
"The name of our beautiful reward is not profit. Its name is freedom."
The winner in each of the four categories received a prize of $10,000. To hear the winners — and all of the nominees — read from their work, head here.
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Transcript
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The publishing industry held the National Book Awards last night. The emcee Daniel Handler described it as quote, "the Oscars, if nobody gave a darn about the Oscars."
ARUN RATH, HOST:
For the record, Steve, I'm looking at the quote, and the word he used was not darn.
INSKEEP: True, but close enough for radio. There is always suspense at the Book Awards because the winners are not decided until that day. NPR's Petra Mayer reports the night belonged to fantasy author Ursula K. Le Guin.
PETRA MAYER, BYLINE: Le Guin, author of such classics as "The Left Hand Of Darkness" and the "Earthsea" novels, got a standing ovation when she came on stage to accept an award for Distinguished Contributions to American Letters.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
URSULA K. LE GUIN: And I rejoice in accepting it for and sharing it with all the writers who were excluded from literature for so long - my fellow authors of fantasy and science fiction.
MAYER: Fantasy and sci-fi fans around the world punched the air at that moment. And Le Guin pulled no punches in a fiery speech about art and commerce.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
LE GUIN: We just saw a profiteer try to punish a publisher for disobedience and writers threatened by corporate fatwa. And I see a lot of us, the producers, accepting this - letting commodity profiteers sell us like deodorant.
MAYER: She was referring to the recent dispute between Amazon and the publisher Hachette over e-book pricing. The power of capitalism can seem inescapable, Le Guin said, but resistance and change begin in art. And writers should demand their fair share of the proceeds from their work.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
LE GUIN: But the name of our beautiful reward is not profit. Its name is freedom. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
MAYER: The crowd went wild. Really, you could've ended the evening there, and almost everyone would've gone home happy, except for the Amazon contingent who notably had no comment on Le Guin's speech or the ribbing they endured throughout the night. But there was dinner to eat and more awards to give out. The eclectic group of nominees ranged from kid lit about great apes to wrenching accounts of war. Kyle Zimmer, founder of the nonprofit organization First Book, won the Literarian Award for her work getting books to underserved children. Jacqueline Woodson won the Young People's Literature prize for "Brown Girl Dreaming," her poetic account of a family and a childhood split between North and South. Poet Louise Gluck won for her collection "Faithful And Virtuous Night." And she articulated a problem that seem common to tonight's winners.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
LOUISE GLUCK: It's very difficult to lose. I've lost many times. And it also, it turns out, it is very difficult to win. This is not in my script.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
EVAN OSNOS: I have to tell you I am a man of hunches, and I did not have a hunch.
MAYER: That's Evan Osnos who also claimed to lack a script for his victory speech. He won in the nonfiction category for "Age Of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, And Faith In The New China." Osnos spent time as a reporter in Beijing, and he dedicated his victory to the people that he wrote about.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
OSNOS: They live in a place where it's very dangerous to be honest and to be vulnerable, and they allowed me to write about them. And I've tried to do them justice.
MAYER: Former Marine Phil Klay also found himself at a loss for words after winning the fiction prize for his story collection, "Redeployment." So he scanned the audience for fellow Marines.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
PHIL KLAY: Some backup? Just two of us? We can take them.
MAYER: That line got a laugh. But Klay was making a serious point. Going through war, writing about it, thinking about it, you need backup.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
KLAY: War's too strange to be processed alone.
MAYER: As the ceremony drew to a close, people started thronging the coat check or drifting upstairs to the afterparty. And they were buzzing about Ursula K. Le Guin.
JYNNE MARTIN: The most ferocious speech ever given at the National Book Awards.
MAYER: That's Jynne Martin, associate publisher at Riverhead Books. As for Le Guin herself, she says, she just wants her words to be reprinted and passed on.
LE GUIN: I hope it - I hope it goes outside this room.
MAYER: It already has. Petra Mayer, NPR News, New York. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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