The National Book Foundation has announced the winners of the 2025 National Book Awards, with Egyptian-Canadian writer Omar El Akkad taking the prize for Nonfiction for One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. The awards were presented at a ceremony in New York City on November 19, recognizing excellence across five categories of American literature. El Akkad’s award comes with a $10,000 prize.

Established in 1950, the National Book Awards honor the year’s best books written by American authors or published by American publishers. Each winner receives a $10,000 prize and a bronze sculpture. The awards have recognized literary giants including Ralph Ellison, Flannery O’Connor, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and James Baldwin. This year’s ceremony also presented special honors to George Saunders, who received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and Roxane Gay, who won the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.

El Akkad’s winning book, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, began as a viral tweet posted in October 2023, three weeks into Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. The book expands on that insight, drawing on El Akkad’s experiences as an immigrant, war reporter, novelist, and father to reckon with Western double standards. His debut novel American War (2017) was named by the BBC as one of 100 novels that shaped our world, while his second novel What Strange Paradise won the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada’s most prestigious literary award.

The other 2025 National Book Award winners include Lebanese writer Rabih Alameddine for Fiction with The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother), Patricia Smith for Poetry with The Intentions of Thunder, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara and translator Robin Myers for Translated Literature with We Are Green and Trembling, and Daniel Nayeri for Young People’s Literature with The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story. The National Book Foundation will host further conversations with the winning authors throughout the year, and all five winning titles have been named to multiple best-of-the-year lists across major publications.