The 2012 National Book Award Winners Announced

The winners of the National Book Awards were announced tonight, November 14, at the National Book Foundation’s 63nd National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.

This year’s winners are:

Fiction

Louise Erdrich, The Round House (Harper/HarperCollins)

Nonfiction

Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (Random House)

Poetry

David Ferry, Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations (University of Chicago Press)

Young People's Literature

William Alexander, Goblin Secrets (Margaret K. McElderry Books/S&S Children’s)

Also at tonight’s ceremony, Elmore Leonard (right, photo by Dermot Cleary) was honored with the National Book Foundation’s 2012 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in recognition of his outstanding achievement in fiction writing.

This year’s Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community was presented to Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr., chairman and publisher of the New York Times, who was honored for his continuing efforts through the New York Times Book Review and online book coverage to ensure an ongoing conversation about books in American culture.