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National Book Award Winners, 2020-2023

Reviews, excerpts, and conversations with the authors of history books that have won the prestigious award.
Updated by Bunk Editor on May 13, 2025. First created November 16, 2023.
Ned Blackhawk and his book "The Rediscovery of America."

Ned Blackhawk Wants to Unmake the U.S. Origin Story

Professor Blackhawk’s new volume attempts to put Native peoples’ stories at the center of the history of the United States.
by Ned Blackhawk, Rhoda Feng via Mother Jones on April 24, 2023 
An interview with Ned Blackhawk, author of 2023 awardee "The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History."
Two Pueblo people hold an American flag at the Ceremonial Cave of the Frijoles Canyon in New Mexico.

Without Indigenous History, There Is No U.S. History

It is impossible to understand the U.S. without understanding its Indigenous history, writes Ned Blackhawk.
by Ned Blackhawk via TIME on April 26, 2023 
In this excerpt from "The Rediscovery of America," Ned Blackhawk argues that a "reorientation of U.S. history is required."
Map of the United States South from 1857

Imani Perry’s Capacious History of the South

Contrary to popular belief, the South has always been the key to defining the promise and limits of American democracy.
by Robert Greene II via The Nation
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on September 17, 2022 
A review of 2022 awardee "South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation."
A large federal style brick house, the William Paca House in Annapolis, Md.

I Searched for Answers About My Enslaved Ancestor. I Found Questions About America

'Did slavery make home always somewhere else?'
by Imani Perry via TIME on January 13, 2022 
In this excerpt from "South to America," Imani Perry describes what it's like to be an African American historical tourist in the American South.
An embroidered sack that says "My great grandmother Rose, mother of Ashley gave her this sack when, she was sold at age 9 in South Carolina, it held a tattered dress 3 handfulls of pecans a braid of Rose's hair. Told her it be filled with my Love always, she never saw her again, Ashley is my grandmother, Ruth Middleton 1921

To Find the History of African American Women, Look to Their Handiwork

Our foremothers wove spiritual beliefs, cultural values, and historical knowledge into their flax, wool, silk, and cotton webs.
by Tiya Miles via The Atlantic
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on June 8, 2021 
An excerpt from 2021 awardee "All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake," by Tiya Miles.
Artistic photo of Malcolm X

Malcolm’s Ministry

At the end of his remarkable, improbable life, Malcolm X was on the cusp of a reinvention that might have been even more significant than his conversion.
by Brandon M. Terry via New York Review of Books
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on February 4, 2021 
A review of 2020 awardee "The Dead are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X," by Les and Tamara Payne.
Malcolm X

The Day Malcolm X Was Killed

At the height of his powers, the Black Nationalist leader was assassinated, and the government botched the investigation of his murder.
by Les Payne via The New Yorker
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on August 27, 2020 
This excerpt from "The Dead are Arising" recounts the botched investigation of Malcolm X's assassination, which resulted in two men spending two decades in prison for a crime they did not commit.
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