Novelist Rabih Alameddine and Poet Patricia Smith Win National Book Awards 2025

The 76th National Book Awards, often called the “Oscars of book publishing,” honoured outstanding literary works. Rabih Alameddine won the Fiction award for The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother), while poet Patricia Smith received the Poetry prize for The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems. Nonfiction went to Omar El Akkad, young readers’ literature to Daniel Nayeri, and translated literature to Gabriela Cabezón Cámara. The ceremony in New York celebrated writers, publishers, and literary mentors.