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The Deep Dive

Your Predictions vs. the National Book Awards Winners

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S. Zainab Williams

Executive Director, Content

S. Zainab would like to think she bleeds ink but the very idea makes her feel faint. She writes fantasy and horror, and is currently clutching a manuscript while groping in the dark. Find her on Twitter: @szainabwilliams.

The winners of the National Book Awards have been announced! If you’d like to read about last night’s star-studded awards ceremony, you can find a recap here, but today I’m comparing the winner predictions we made back when the finalists were announced to the actual winners. We voted based on what we learned about the history of the awards, past winners, and—let’s be real—our own biases and unscientific hunches.

Well, friends, let’s how our predictions stacked up!

Fiction Prize Winner

Chain-Gang All-Stars book cover

Top Prediction: Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (74%)

Book cover of Blackouts

Winner: Blackouts by Justin Torres

Blackouts only received 4% of the vote, and it too was a surprise win in my eyes mainly because I hadn’t heard much about this novel. Based on the description, Torres’s work sounds like a fresh and experimental examination of queerness and queer erasure. While I made no secret of the fact that I hoped Adjei-Brenyah’s novel would win this category, and Chain-Gang polled higher than any other finalist, I’m intrigued by this book about a book and look forward to reading it.

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