If They Gave Oscars to Books, Our 2019 Nominees
The Academy Awards approach. And so, as we’ve done for the past three years, we have been preparing for the Fake Oscars by thinking about the Real Oscars: that’s right, the Book Oscars. Er, the Book Oscars that aren’t the National Book Awards. You can wear a gown to the National Book Awards. But you know what, you can also wear a gown to reading this internet article. You do you.
So what would the categories look like if they applied to books and not films? And which books would win under said invented circumstances? Those burning questions and more are answered below. Be warned in advance that this list will be just as incomplete as any—though it is significantly less white and male than the Oscars. (Low bar, I know.) Still, feel free to shout out your favorite publicist or literary citizen in the comments!
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Best Novel (Best Picture)
Sally Rooney, Normal People
Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys
Lucy Ellmann, Ducks, Newburyport
Elizabeth Strout, Olive, Again
Susan Choi, Trust Exercise
Ben Lerner, The Topeka School
Téa Obreht, Inland
Miriam Toews, Women Talking
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Literary Citizen (Actor in a Leading Role)
Patrice Caldwell, founder and fundraising chair of People of Color in Publishing
T Kira Madden, memoirist, founding editor of No Tokens and general voice of reason
Noname, founder of Noname’s Book Club
Emily Gale, YA author and leader of #AuthorsForFireys
Everyone who is not on Twitter
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Best Debut Novels (Actor in a Supporting Role)
Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Fleishman Is In Trouble
Julia Phillips, Disappearing Earth
Chia-Chia Lin, The Unpassing
Sophie Mackintosh, The Water Cure
Lauren Wilkinson, American Spy
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Best YA Novel (Animated Feature Film)
Elizabeth Acevedo, With the Fire on High
Randy Ribay, Patron Saints of Nothing
Brittany Cavallaro and Emily Henry, Hello Girls
Akwaeke Emezi, Pet
Courtney Summers, Sadie
Tehlor Kay Mejia, We Set the Dark on Fire
Justin A. Reynolds, The Opposite of Always
Evelyn Skye, Circle of Shadows
Rory Powers, Wilder Girls
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Best Setting (Cinematography)
Miriam Toews, Women Talking (the Molotscha Colony, Bolivia)
Julia Phillips, Disappearing Earth (the Kamchatka Peninsula)
Lara Prior-Palmer, Rough Magic (the Mongolian steppe)
Ben Lerner, The Topeka School (Kansas)
Marlon James, Black Leopard Red Wolf (maybe the opposite of Kansas)
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Best Book Jacket Design (Costume Design)
Yoko Ogawa, The Memory Police, design by Tyler Comrie
Adam Ehrlich Sachs, The Organs os Sense, design by Alex Merto
Myla Goldberg, Feast Your Eyes, design by Lauren Peters-Collaer
Reginald Dwayne Betts, Felon, design by Sarahmay Wilkinson, art by Titus Kaphar
Tegan & Sara, High School, design by Na Kim
Regina Porter, The Travelers, design by Michael Morris
Dunya Mikhail, In Her Feminine Sign, design by Janet Hansen
Jac Jemc, False Bingo, design by June Park
Angie Cruz, Dominicana, design by Adalis Martinez
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Best Work of Nonfiction (Documentary—Feature)
Sarah M. Broom, The Yellow House
Patrick Radden Keefe, Say Nothing
Lisa Taddeo, Three Women
Robert Macfarlane, Underland
Chanel Miller, Know My Name
Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing
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Best Essay Collection (Documentary—Short Subject)
Jia Tolentino, Trick Mirror
Esmé Weijun Wang, The Collected Schizophrenias
Rachel Cusk, Coventry
Ross Gay, The Book of Delights
Lydia Davis, Essays: One
Margaret Renkl, Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss
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Best Work of Experimental Literature (Film Editing)
Lucy Ellmann, Ducks, Newburyport
Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other
Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House
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Best Book in Translation (Foreign Language Film)
Maria Gainza, tr. Thomas Bunstead, Optic Nerve
Yūko Tsushima, tr. Geraldine Harcourt, Territory of Light
Philippe Lançon, tr. Steven Rendall, Disturbance
Olga Tokarczuk, tr. Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Niklas Natt och Dag, tr. Ebba Segerberg, The Wolf and the Watchman
Rudolph Herzog, tr. Emma Rault, Ghosts of Berlin
Naja Marie Aidt, tr. Denise Newman, When Death Takes Something From You, Give it Back
Yoko Ogawa, tr. Stephen Snyder, The Memory Police
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Coolest Publicity Squad (Production Design)
Little, Brown
Coffee House
FSG
Ecco
Counterpoint
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Best Picture Book (Short Film—Animated)
Sven Volker, A Million Dots
Christian Robinson, Another
Beatrice Alemagna, Child of Glass
Kwame Alexander, illus. Kadir Nelson, The Undefeated
Jin Xiaojing, I Miss My Grandpa
Isabel Quintero, illus. Zeke Peña, My Papi Has a Motorcycle
Sydney Smith, Small in the City
Shinsuke Yoshitake, The Boring Book
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Best Short Story Collection (Short Film—Live Action)
Bryan Washington, Lot: Stories
Zadie Smith, Grand Union
Amy Hempel, Sing to It
Ted Chiang, Exhalation
Karen Russell, Orange World and Other Stories
Kimberly King Parsons, Black Light
Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Sabrina & Corina
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Best Graphic Novel or Work of Graphic Nonfiction (Visual Effects)
Mira Jacob, Good Talk
Diane Noomin, ed., Drawing Power
Chris Ware, Rusty Brown
Seth, Clyde Fans
Lynda Barry, Making Comics
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Best Work of SF/Fantasy/Speculative Fiction (Makeup and Hairstyling)
Leigh Bardugo, Ninth House
Sandra Newman, The Heavens
Claire North, The Gameshouse
Marlon James, Black Leopard Red Wolf
Yoko Ogawa, tr. Stephen Snyder, The Memory Police
Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Gods of Jade and Shadow
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Best Book of Poetry (Sound Editing and Sound Mixing)
Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic
Jericho Brown, The Tradition
Franny Choi, Soft Science
Hanif Abdurraqib, A Fortune for Your Disaster
Fred Moten, All That Beauty
Jake Skeets, Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers
