"Omar El Akkad, author of Such Strange Paradise and Stories from the Center of the World, has won the 2025 National Book Award in Nonfiction for One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, his reflection on the Israel-Hamas war and what it means to live in a West that betrays its values. The award was announced Wednesday night at the 76th Annual National Book Awards Ceremony presented by the National Book Foundation in New York City."
"In his acceptance speech, El Akkad thanked his mother, wife, and children for their support and spoke candidly about his work, noting that celebrating the book felt counterintuitive given its difficult topic. He spoke about the importance of free speech and expressed deep appreciation for his fellow writers and nominees, saying he draws "so much courage" from others in the room."
"Another Portlander was also a finalist, in the fiction category: Karen Russell, for The Antidote, which follows the story of a historic dust storm that devastates a small Nebraska town and the "Prairie Witch" who holds the memories and secrets for the residents of this town. Both El Akkad and Russell appeared earlier this month at the Portland Book Festival, where they appeared together in a panel on "American Reckoning.""
Omar El Akkad won the 2025 National Book Award in Nonfiction for One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, a reflection on the Israel-Hamas war and what it means to live in a West that betrays its values. The award was presented at the 76th Annual National Book Awards Ceremony in New York City and includes a $10,000 prize. El Akkad, who lived in Canada and now resides in Portland, thanked his mother, wife, and children for their support and emphasized free speech and solidarity among writers. He was one of nine nonfiction finalists among 652 nominees; publishers submitted 1,835 books in five categories. Portland connections included finalist Karen Russell and poetry winner Patricia Smith, and both El Akkad and Russell appeared at the Portland Book Festival.
Read at Oregon ArtsWatch * Arts & Culture News
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