--- description: The winners of the 2016 National Book Award were announced on Wednesday night in Manhattan. Here's who took home prizes. title: Colson Whitehead Wins National Book Award for The Underground Railroad image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt115fab99ea79f767/6988aed8e20a873fa8a9342f/gettyimages-548153119.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Books](/tag/books/) ## Books Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Colson Whitehead Wins National Book Award for _The Underground Railroad_ by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 17, 2016 11:27 AM CUT  Colson Whitehead. Colson Whitehead.Getty Images by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 17, 2016 11:27 AM CUT The winners of the 2016 National Book Award were announced on Wednesday night in Manhattan. Here’s who took home prizes. **1\. For fiction:** **_The Underground Railroad,_** **Colson Whitehead.** Whitehead’s widely celebrated novel — even President Barack Obama [raved about it](http://time.com/4450367/president-obama-summer-reading-list-2016/ "undefined") — follows a runaway slave, Cora, framed against a fanciful conceit: in Whitehead’s story, the Underground Railroad is not a euphemism for the grisly routes taken by slaves seeking freedom but in fact an actual railway. The novel was a long time coming. “Slavery is such a huge topic–I didn’t feel up for it emotionally,” the 47-year-old novelist [told TIME in August](http://time.com/4447972/colson-whitehead-the-underground-railroad/ "undefined"). “Every couple of years I would go back to the idea and look at my page of notes and maybe add a line.” **2\. For nonfiction:** **_Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, Ibram X. Kendi._** Kendi, an professor of Africana Studies at the University of Florida, offers a bold proposition in his work of intellectual history: Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln might be racist. _Stamped from the Beginning_ offers an intricate look at the history of race in the U.S., arguing that many well-meaning American progressives inadvertently operate on belief systems tinged with a racist heritage. “So many prominent Americans, many of whom we celebrate for their progressive ideas and activism, many of whom had very good intentions, subscribed to assimilationist thinking that has also served up racist beliefs about Black inferiority,” Kendi writes in the book, as excerpted by the [_Washington Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/book-party/wp/2016/04/15/the-racism-of-good-intentions/?utm%5Fterm=.bfe801929956 "undefined")_._ **3\. For poetry:** **_The Performance of Becoming Human,_** **Daniel Borzutzky.** Borzutzky [grew up](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/daniel-borzutzky "undefined") in Pittsburgh but has his roots in Chile — a cultural bridge that materializes in his collection _The Performance of Becoming Human._ He is frank in exploring these themes: the [titular poem](http://www.brooklynartspress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Daniel-Borzutzky-The-Performance-of-Becoming-Human-Brooklyn-Arts-Press-Excerpt.pdf "undefined") begins with the line “On the side of the highway a thousand refugees step off a school bus and into a sun that can only be described as ‘blazing.'” **4\. For young people’s literature:** [**_March: Book Three,_** **John Lewis**](http://www.latimes.com/books/la-et-jc-national-book-awards-20161116-story.html "undefined"). Lewis is today a Georgia congressman, but half a century ago, when the 6th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. was bombed, he was a prominent civil rights activist. _March: Book Three_ is his recollection. The [_Los Angeles Times_](http://www.latimes.com/books/la-et-jc-national-book-awards-20161116-story.html "undefined")reports that Lewis cried upon receiving the National Book Award on Wednesday night, recounting growing up in poverty in Alabama, unable under Jim Crow to enter a whites-only library. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4574326/colson-whitehead-national-book-award/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4574326/colson-whitehead-national-book-award/"},"headline":"Colson Whitehead Wins National Book Award for The Underground Railroad","datePublished":"2016-11-17T11:27:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:52:12.190Z","description":"Even President Barack Obama raved about Whitehead's celebrated novel","url":"https://time.com/4574326/colson-whitehead-national-book-award/","keywords":["Books","John Lewis"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt115fab99ea79f767/6988aed8e20a873fa8a9342f/gettyimages-548153119.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/blt115fab99ea79f767/6988aed8e20a873fa8a9342f/gettyimages-548153119.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Whitehead, Colson - Author, USA - Maerz 2011","caption":"Whitehead, Colson - Author, USA - Maerz 2011","creditText":"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/4574326/colson-whitehead-national-book-award/","name":"Colson Whitehead Wins National Book Award for The Underground Railroad"}}]}] ```