Here are the winners of the 2025 National Book Awards

"When author Rabih Alameddine accepted his National Book Award for Fiction on Wednesday night, he thanked his agent, his editor and early readers of his work. He also thanked his psychiatrist, his drug dealers and "all gastrointestinal doctors." "I guarantee you that I wouldn't have been able to write a single word in the last 10 years without their help," he said. "There would have been no movement.""

"Other winners similarly balanced the festive feeling of the night with heavier global concerns. Writer Omar El Akkad won the non-fiction prize for his book One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, which is a critique of the West's involvement in the war in Gaza. "It's very difficult to think in celebratory terms about a book that was written in response to a genocide," he said."

"Full list of winners and finalists below: Fiction: Rabih Alameddine, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) (WINNER) Megha Majumdar, A Guardian and a Thief Karen Russell, The Antidote Ethan Rutherford, North Sun: Or, the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther Bryan Washington, Palaver Nonfiction: Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This (WINNER) Julia Ioffe, Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy Yiyun Li, Things in Nature Claudia Rowe, Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care Jordan Thomas, When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World Poetry: Patricia Smith, The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems (WINNER) Gabrielle Calvocoressi, The New Economy Cathy Linh Che, Becoming Ghost Tiana Clark, Scorched Earth Richard Siken, I Do Know Some Things Translated Literature: Gabriela Cabezon Camara, We Are Green and Trembling. Translated by Robin Myers ("

Rabih Alameddine won the National Book Award for Fiction for The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother). He thanked his agent, editor, early readers, psychiatrist, drug dealers and gastrointestinal doctors, saying he could not have written during the last decade without their help and that there would have been no movement. Omar El Akkad won the Nonfiction prize for One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, critiquing the West's involvement in the Gaza war and noting the difficulty of celebrating a book written in response to genocide. Other category winners included Patricia Smith (Poetry) and Gabriela Cabezon Camara (Translated Literature).

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