Kate McKinnon Hosts 2024 National Book Awards: 'Writing a Book Is Nothing Short of an Act of Kindness'

"I know that when everything goes dark, the sun's still up there," said Lifetime Achievement Award-winner Barbara Kingsolver at the 'Oscars of Books' 75th event

• The 2024 National Book Awards were presented to winners in fiction, nonfiction, young people's literature and translated literature, as well as awards for lifetime achievement and service to the literary community.

• Comedian and author Kate McKinnon emceed the event and Jon Batiste performed as the musical guest.

• During their acceptance speeches, authors spoke about their commitment to resisting AI encroachment, supporting literature as a form of resistance and source of hope and standing together as a community.

The winners of the 2024 National Book Awards have been announced, and some familiar names graced the stage.

Winners in the fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature and young people's literature categories received their honors on Wednesday, Nov. 20 at the 75th National Book Awards Ceremony in New York City. Author and comedian Kate McKinnon emceed the event and Jon Batiste performed as the musical guest.

Two lifetime achievement awards were also presented at the ceremony: Barbara Kingsolver was recognized with the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and W. Paul Coates received the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.

"I wanted to be here because books do so many things. They inspire, they transport, they kill spiders when you can't find a shoe," McKinnon said in her opening address, after joking that she didn't have the "necessary gravitas" to host the event.

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"Ultimately we tell stories because we want help. A book is an offering. It's a hand in the darkness. A way of saying, 'I know. Isn't this crazy?' And that's something that a robot will never be able to do," McKinnon continued. "Robots do not know what it is like to be certain you're going to die one day. Robots do not experience racism or food insecurity. Robots do not lose their partners, weep over election results or receive a devastating diagnosis."

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"But we know these things. People know these things," McKinnon concluded. "And so until we have solved the problems of death and loneliness and their byproducts, war and climate change, sensitive souls, we'll continue to offer their thesis of how to make the most of our fragile and fleeting time on this burning planet surrounded by other red hearts. And in that way, writing a book is nothing short of an act of kindness."

During her acceptance speech, Kingsolver also spoke about the importance of books as a guiding force during times of hardship. "I've written through crises that seemed unsurvivable to me," she said. "So I know that when everything goes dark, the sun's still up there."

"Artists get called a lot of dreamy things. We're lighthouses, we're visionaries. We are soothers of the savage beast maybe, but I think we're at our best as disruptors, when we challenge the lazy belief that my best interests are everybody's best interests," Kingsolver continued. "We get to crack people open ... We use our best, beautiful tricks to lure people into letting go of themselves for a little while so they can look into the soul of another human. Because that empathy, my friends, is our salvation. As James Baldwin told us, we are still each other's only hope."

Here's which books and authors won in each category:

FICTION: James by Percival Everett

James, written by Percival Everett, puts a twist on Mark Twain's classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by instead following the perspective of Jim, an escaped slave who is traveling with Huckleberry.

In his acceptance speech, Everett noted that the enthusiasm for books in the room did give him some hope for the future before adding, "It's important to remember, hope is a strategy."

Everett's other books, Dr. No, The Trees, Telephone, So Much Blue, Erasure and I Am Not Sidney Poitier, have also won and been nominated for a range of awards. Everett is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California, and lives in Los Angeles with his wife Danzy Senna.

Related: Jeffrey Wright Discusses Erasure, the Novel that Inspired American Fiction: ‘It’s A Great Read’ (Exclusive)

NONFICTION: Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling by Jason De León

Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling, by Jason De León, is the author-anthropologist's account of human smugglers — guides, or "the one who can potentially lead you through danger" — at the United States-Mexico border.

When accepting his award, De León joked that his sons would be disappointed he didn't get to hug McKinnon. The comedian then sprinted onstage and wrapped him in a bear hug. "See, if you manifest it, it will come," the winner added.

De León is a professor of Anthropology and Chicana/o Studies, and Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His earlier book, The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail, won four awards since being published in 2015.

POETRY: Something About Living by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha

Something About Living, by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, captures both the unrivaled beauty and persistent struggle that is ingrained in the Palestinian collective experience, told through American language to highlight its history of erasure.

In addition to her work as a poet, Tuffaha is also an essayist and translator. She has published six books and is presently curating a series, Against Silence, for Words Without Borders about Palestinian writers.

TRANSLATED LITERATURE: Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and translated by Lin King

Taiwan Travelogue, by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and translated by Lin King follows a young Japanese novelist who travels to Taiwan in 1938. She then befriends a local woman, with whom she forms a powerful bond. The novel was a smash hit upon its first publication in Mandarin Chinese in 2020 and also won Taiwan’s highest literary honor, the Golden Tripod Award.

King is a writer and translator of Mandarin and Japanese; another of her translations is The Boy from Clearwater, a historical graphic novel series by Yu Pei-Yun and illustrated by Zhou Jian-Xin.

YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE: Kareem Between by Shifa Saltagi Safadi

Kareem Between, written by Shifa Saltagi Safadi, follows young Kareem as he navigates seventh grade, stuck between countries, friends, football, parents "and between right and wrong."

Safadi has authored multiple picture books, including The Gift of Eid, and reviews Muslim books on her self-run Muslim Mommy Blog. A Syrian immigrant herself, she came to the United States at a young age and now lives near Chicago with her family.