L.A.’s Tess Gunty, Imani Perry among winners of 2022 National Book Awards
The National Book Awards, celebrating the best in American publishing, has announced its winners for the 2022 edition.
On Friday, the awards announced its list of contenders, and the winners were revealed Friday morning. The list was not entirely unexpected, and certainly was as eclectic as ever.
“There’s always new things, but nothing I don’t expect,” said Book of the Year winner Alice Walker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of children’s books.
The big winner was, of course, A Wrinkle in Time, which won for Picture Book (it’s currently topping the all-time best sellers lists for both the children’s and YA categories). In the Children’s Division, the awards had a strong field, with two nominees (The Secret Life of Pets and The Very Hungry Caterpillar), and one major (The Graveyard Book).
“Books have always inspired me in a very personal way,” said Walker. “I’ve been a reader my whole life and never had as powerful an impact.”
In the YA category, three entries were considered “fresh” — A Discovery of Witches, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and The BFG.
It’s important to note that the awards have no direct bearing on which books make it to the top of the New York Times or Amazon best sellers lists, as these lists are not always released on the first Monday of the book’s life (as with most books, these lists are released in January). In fact, it’s possible that a book which, as it turns out, isn’t a book in the traditional sense at all could have made its way onto the New York Times bestseller list before its final day on the shelves.
“It’s a very, very long tail and there’s no way to predict what will reach the top, but there are some books that have gone to number one and others that have not,” Booklist editor Lisa Belkin told The Times. “This is a long list, but every year we want to make sure that we have a strong, diverse list in all the categories.”
There were also a number of other highlights on the list,