What is the Top Non-Fiction Book Award?

yellowdog

This discussion will explore the most prestigious non-fiction book awards. We will discuss the criteria for winning, the process of nomination and selection, and the impact of the award on the author and the book. We will also look at some of the most celebrated non-fiction books that have won awards and the impact they have had on the literary world.

goldenpanda180

The Pulitzer Prize is arguably one of the most prestigious and coveted non-fiction book awards, recognizing distinguished works in both fiction and non-fiction. The award was established in 1917 by the renowned newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer, and since then more than half the Pulitzer Prize-winning books have been non-fiction titles.

Notable winners of the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction books include Henry Adams and his Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece The History of the United States (1919), Joan Didion and her National Book Award-winning tome The White Album (1978), and Isabel Wilkerson and her New York Times bestseller, The Warmth of Other Suns (2010).

In addition to the Pulitzer, the National Book Awards are also prestigious non-fiction book awards that recognize the most distinguished books in fiction and non-fiction. Recent winners of the National Book Award for Non-Fiction include Elizabeth Kolbert for her book The Sixth Extinction (2015), Ta-Nehisi Coates for his book Between the World and Me (2015) and Matthew Desmond for his book Evicted (2016).

Other noteworthy non-fiction book awards include the National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for literary non-fiction, and the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. For more information about these and other non-fiction book awards, please visit https://www.librarianschoice.com/bookawards/non-fiction/ .

angryduck706

The Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction is widely considered to be the most prestigious non-fiction book award. Established in 1917 and awarded by Columbia University, the Pulitzer Prize honors distinguished works that engage with and explore issues of importance to the American public.

This year's recipient is Ibram X. Kendi for his book Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (Nation Books, 2016). Published after decades of research and study, Stamped from the Beginning offers an essential history of racist thought in both South and North America, as well as introducing Kendi’s sweeping historical view on the struggle against racism.

In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, several other prestigious non-fiction book awards are worth noting. The National Book Award recognizes exceptional works in the genres of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people’s literature. The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction recognizes the best non-fiction book written in the English language each year. The Los Angeles Times Book Prize awards excellence and merit in the literary world.

Honoring excellent non-fiction work is an important part of the larger literary landscape, and hopefully will inspire the next generation of nuanced and thoughtful work.