2020's National Book Awards Strive For Inclusivity
This year's National Book Awards — announced in a first-ever virtual streaming ceremony — went mostly to writers of color, as the foundation that gives the prizes vowed to be more inclusive.
This year's National Book Awards ceremony was an evening with a message: We can do better.
The online-only event included a montage of Black winners past — narrated by LeVar Burton — with an embarrassing admission: From 1936 to 1999, only 13 writers of color won a National Book Award.
"We haven't been bold enough in our vision," said National Book Foundation executive director Lisa Lucas, who will leave the foundation in January to become a senior vice president and publisher at Pantheon and Schocken Books. "We haven't been brave enough in our choices. We haven't been confident enough in our values to
