literary prizes

Prize Administrator Dana Canedy is stepping behind the lectern Monday to deliver good news to distinguished journalists, authors, musicians, scholars and others ranging across 21 categories.

The novel earned Jones the $35,000 award for tackling difficult social issues in fiction. The prize's head judge says the book is "going to have a place in the literary imagination for a long time."

The novelists, poets and playwrights won Wednesday partly for their work so far, but also for the promise they've shown. If previous winners are an indication, it's a promise they're likely to keep.

Five books remain in the running: Tommy Orange's There There; Tayari Jones' An American Marriage; David Chariandy's Brother; Jennifer Clement's Gun Love; and Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah.

Behrouz Boochani, who has been detained offshore since 2013, had to compose his debut using WhatsApp messages. Now, that book has earned him the Victorian Prize for Literature

The world of children's books gave out its most prestigious prizes Monday at the American Library Association's conference in Seattle. Works by Meg Medina and Sophie Blackall won the headline honors.

Nunez and Acevedo won for fiction and young people's literature, respectively. The prestigious literary prize also honored Jeffrey C. Stewart, Justin Phillip Reed, Yoko Tawada and Margaret Mitsutani.

Ling Ma's debut, Severance, won for fiction. Crown earned Derrick Barnes and Gordon James the young readers' prize. And Rebecca Solnit's essays, Call Them by Their True Names, won nonfiction laurels.