Books The Friend author Sigrid Nunez triumphs at the 2018 National Book Awards By David Canfield David Canfield David Canfield is a former staff editor at Entertainment Weekly. He left EW in 2022. EW's editorial guidelines Published on November 14, 2018 10:27PM EST Photo: Nancy Crampton; William Morrow Sigrid Nunez published her first book in 1995, and had been steadily writing for more than two decades before receiving her first nomination for a National Book Award, the most prestigious American literary award, just last month. And Wednesday night, the author managed to go all the way, winning the coveted prize for Fiction, a triumphant moment of recognition for her acclaimed new novel The Friend. For The Friend, a meditation on loss and writing which centers on an aging author’s bond with a great dane, Nunez defeated former National Book Awards finalist Lauren Groff (Florida), debut author Jamel Brinkley (A Lucky Man), Andrew Carnegie Medal finalist Rebecca Makkai (The Great Believers), and Brandon Hobson (Where the Dead Sit Talking). The finalists were announced last week. (Best-selling novels There There and An American Marriage were longlisted, but didn’t ultimately make the final cut.) Other National Book Award winners for 2018 include Jeffrey C. Stewart, author of The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke (Nonfiction); Justin Phillip Reed, author of Indecency (Poetry); and Toko Tawada and her translator Margaret Mitsutani, inaugural Translated Literature winners for The Emissary. Finally, in a major moment for slam-poet-turned-YA-author Elizabeth Acevedo, her innovative debut The Poet X nabbed the trophy for Young People’s Literature (EW called it “a stunning amplification of the Latina experience). See the full list of winners is below: FICTION Jamel Brinkley, A Lucky ManLauren Groff, FloridaBrandon Hobson, Where the Dead Sit TalkingRebecca Makkai, The Great Believers***Sigrid Nunez, The Friend NONFICTION Colin G. Calloway, The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the NationVictoria Johnson, American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early RepublicSarah Smarsh, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth***Jeffrey C. Stewart, The New Negro: The Life of Alain LockeAdam Winkler, We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights POETRY Rae Armantrout, WobbleTerrance Hayes, American Sonnets for My Past and Future AssassinDiana Khoi Nguyen, Ghost Of***Justin Phillip Reed, IndecencyJenny Xie, Eye Level TRANSLATED LITERATURE Négar Djavadi, DisorientalTranslated by Tina KoverHanne Ørstavik, LoveTranslated by Martin AitkenDomenico Starnone, TrickTranslated by Jhumpa Lahiri***Yoko Tawada, The EmissaryTranslated by Margaret MitsutaniOlga Tokarczuk, FlightsTranslated by Jennifer Croft YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE ***Elizabeth Acevedo, The Poet XM. T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin, The Assassination of Brangwain SpurgeLeslie Connor, The Truth as Told by Mason ButtleChristopher Paul Curtis, The Journey of Little CharlieJarrett J. Krosoczka, Hey, Kiddo Related content: National Book Awards 2017: See the full list of winners These are the finalists for the 2018 National Book Award There There, An American Marriage, more make National Book Awards longlist