Charles Yu Wins National Book Award for 'Interior Chinatown'

Charles Yu Wins National Book Award for 'Interior Chinatown'
Congratulations to Charles Yu, who won the National Book Award for fiction on Wednesday for his mind-bending satire, Interior Chinatown, a sendup of Hollywood and Asian-American stereotypes. The novel, written in the form of a screenplay, features an aspiring actor named Willis Wu who confronts casual racism and the cruel hierarchies of the entertainment world in his quest to graduate from bit roles as the "Delivery Guy" or "Silent Henchman." The judges praised the novel as "wonderfully inventive" and "by turns hilarious and flat out heartbreaking." Watch the announcement here (skip to 1:50:17).

Cynthia Kadohata wins National Book Award

The Thing About Luck wins in the category of young people's literature

Congratulations to Cynthia Kadohata, who won the prestigious National Book Award in the category of young people's literature for her novel The Thing About Luck.

The annual awards, presented by the National Book Foundation, honor American authors for works published in the past year in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people's literature. : 2013 National Book Awards Go to McBride, Packer, Szybist, Kadohata .

James McBride won the award in fiction for The Good Lord Bird, George Packer won the award in nonfiction for The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, and Mary Szybist won in the category of poetry for Incarnadine.

The Thing About Luck is the story of 12-year-old Summer Miyamoto, who must make her own luck to save her intergenerational Japanese American family:

Boxers & Saints is a finalist for the National Book Award

Gene Luen Yang is the first author to be nominated twice for a graphic novel.



HUGE congratulations to our friend Gene Luen Yang, whose marvelous graphic novel Boxers & Saints has been nominated for the prestigious National Book Award. The finalists for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people's literature were announced this morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe, and Gene made the cut!

Boxers & Saints makes the National Book Awards Longlist

Gene Luen Yang is the first graphic novelist to be nominated twice for the prestigious award.

Awesommmmme! I've already told you how much I love Gene Luen Yang's latest graphic novel Boxers & Saints. It seems that the good people at the National Book Foundation like it too. The epic, two-volume book has made the prestigious 2013 National Book Award Longlist for Young People's Literature.

Boxers & Saints is the only graphic novel to make the list. Gene previously nominated back in 2006 for American Born Chinese, the first graphic novel ever to be a finalist for the National Book Awards. And now Gene is the first graphic novelist to be nominated twice. Double awesome.

Boxers & Saints is a powerful, brilliant work of historical fiction set during China's bloody Boxer Rebellion, told in two parallel stories from opposite sides of the conflict. It balances action, humor and spirituality in a masterful way that has really become Gene Luen Yang's trademark. The longlist recognition is well deserved.

The National Book Foundation will reveal the award finalists on October 16. If you haven't read Boxers & Saints yet, you gotta get on it now. Congratulations, Gene! For further information, check out his website.

More here: 2013 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS: 'Boxers & Saints' graphic novelist Gene Yang calls long-list honor 'mind-blowing'