About

The Mission of the National Book Foundation is to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America. In addition to the National Book Awards, the Foundation’s programs include  5 Under 35, a celebration of young fiction writers selected by former National Book Award Finalists and Winners; the National Book Awards Teen Press Conference, an opportunity for students across the country to interview the current National Book Award Finalists in Young People’s Literature; the Innovations in Reading Prize, awarded to individuals and institutions that have developed innovative means of creating and sustaining a lifelong love of reading; and BookUp, an after-school reading club for middle- and high-school students, which is run in New York City and Texas.


About the National Book Awards
One of the nation’s most prestigious literary prizes, the National Book Award has a stellar record of identifying and rewarding quality writing. In 1950, William Carlos Williams was the first Winner in Poetry, the following year William Faulkner was honored in Fiction, and so on through the years. Many previous Winners of a National Book Award are now firmly established in the canon of American literature, such as Sherman Alexie, Jonathan Franzen, Denis Johnson, Maxine Hong Kingston, Joyce Carol Oates, and Adrienne Rich.