--- title: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Adam Johnson Win National Book Awards description: Journalist and writer Ta-Nehisi Coates won the National Book Award for nonfiction on Wednesday night for "Between the World and Me." canonical: https://time.com/4119748/national-book-awards-tanehisi-coates-adam-johnson/ author: Nash Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-19T04:28:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:45:21.916Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Adam Johnson Win National Book Awards og:description: Robin Coste Lewis and Neal Shusterman also took home prizes. og:url: https://time.com/4119748/national-book-awards-tanehisi-coates-adam-johnson/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b29d936ccc679de/698871e05f570f15d1b1e6b4/gettyimages-496741610.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: GettyImages-496741610 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Adam Johnson Win National Book Awards twitter:description: Robin Coste Lewis and Neal Shusterman also took home prizes. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b29d936ccc679de/698871e05f570f15d1b1e6b4/gettyimages-496741610.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ta-Nehisi Coates, Adam Johnson Win National Book Awards ## Video: Best Free and Cheap Ebooks Sites [Watch (HLS stream): Best Free and Cheap Ebooks Sites](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/35n2mZWt.m3u8) (1:42)  _Published 2014-06-25. Some of our favorite places to go for summer reading on the cheap._ by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Nov 19, 2015 4:28 AM CUT  Author Ta-Nehisi Coates speaks at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass. on Nov. 11, 2015. Author Ta-Nehisi Coates speaks at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass. on Nov. 11, 2015.Paul Marotta—Getty Images by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Nov 19, 2015 4:28 AM CUT Journalist and writer Ta-Nehisi Coates [won](http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/ta-nehisi-coates-wins-national-book-award-nonfiction-35294618 "undefined") the National Book Award for nonfiction on Wednesday night for _Between the World and Me_, his acclaimed tract on American race relations. The prize in fiction went to Adam Johnson for _Fortune Smiles_, a collection of stories. His novel [_The Orphan Master’s Son_](http://time.com/3987019/the-long-journey-from-north-korea-to-freedom/ "undefined") earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 2013. Coates, a writer for the _Atlantic,_ has emerged as one of the U.S.’s most influential voices on matters of race. He wrote _Between the World and Me_, which TIME described as a “provocative and extraordinary work,” as a letter to his teenage son, a strategy he borrowed from his intellectual progenitor James Baldwin. “Coates’ work reveals a lifelong quest to resolve these inner conflicts and fight off a prevailing sense of hopelessness,” Vanessa De Luca, editor in chief of _Essence,_ [wrote](http://time.com/4012848/tanehisi-coates-margo-jefferson-damon-tweedy/ "undefined") for TIME in August. “He wants to do so, if not for himself, then for his son, whose optimistic approach to life convinces Coates there is yet room for hope.” “At the heart of our country is the notion that we are O.K. with the presumption that black people somehow have an angle, somehow have a predisposition to criminality,” the _Guardian_ quotes Coates as [saying](http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/19/ta-nehisi-coates-wins-national-book-award-for-nonfiction "undefined") after receiving his award at the prize ceremony in New York City. At the ceremony, Robin Coste Lewis was awarded the National Book Award for poetry; the prize for young people’s fiction went to Neal Shusterman. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4119748/national-book-awards-tanehisi-coates-adam-johnson/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4119748/national-book-awards-tanehisi-coates-adam-johnson/"},"headline":"Ta-Nehisi Coates, Adam Johnson Win National Book Awards","datePublished":"2015-11-19T04:28:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:45:21.916Z","description":"Robin Coste Lewis and Neal Shusterman also took home prizes","url":"https://time.com/4119748/national-book-awards-tanehisi-coates-adam-johnson/","keywords":["Books","Literature","writing"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b29d936ccc679de/698871e05f570f15d1b1e6b4/gettyimages-496741610.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nash Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b29d936ccc679de/698871e05f570f15d1b1e6b4/gettyimages-496741610.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GettyImages-496741610","caption":"on November 11, 2015 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.","creditText":"Paul Marotta—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4119748/national-book-awards-tanehisi-coates-adam-johnson/","name":"Ta-Nehisi Coates, Adam Johnson Win National Book Awards"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Best Free and Cheap Ebooks Sites","description":"Some of our favorite places to go for summer reading on the cheap.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/35n2mZWt/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-06-25T15:53:11.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/35n2mZWt.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4119748/national-book-awards-tanehisi-coates-adam-johnson/","duration":"PT1M42S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4119748/national-book-awards-tanehisi-coates-adam-johnson/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```