James McBride won the National Book Award for fiction Wednesday night for `` The Good Lord Bird . '' Each year the National Book Foundation presents awards to winners in four categories : fiction , nonfiction , poetry and young people 's literature . The four winners were announced in a ceremony in New York hosted by Mika Brzezinski , co-host of MSNBC 's `` Morning Joe . '' George Packer won the nonfiction award for `` The Unwinding : An Inner History of the New America . '' Mary Szybist won the poetry award for `` Incarnadine : Poems , '' while Cynthia Kadohata won the young people 's literature award for `` The Thing About Luck . '' Established in 1950 , the National Book Award is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the United States . Past recipients include William Faulkner , Alice Walker , Philip Roth and Adrienne Rich . The winners were narrowed down from a pool of 1,432 submissions . A five-judge panel of writers , literary critics and booksellers in each category came up with a list of 10 titles announced in September and narrowed it down to five finalists in October . Among this year 's finalists were journalists , historians , Pulitzer Prize winners and past National Book Award winners and finalists , including Thomas Pynchon , who won the National Book Award in 1974 for `` Gravity 's Rainbow , '' and Rachel Kushner , whose debut novel `` Telex From Cuba '' was a 2008 National Book Award finalist . Here is a list of this year 's finalists : . Fiction . Rachel Kushner , `` The Flamethrowers '' Jhumpa Lahiri , `` The Lowland '' James McBride , `` The Good Lord Bird '' ( WINNER ) Thomas Pynchon , `` Bleeding Edge '' George Saunders , `` Tenth of December '' Nonfiction . Jill Lepore , `` Book of Ages : The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin '' Wendy Lower , `` Hitler 's Furies : German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields '' George Packer , `` The Unwinding : An Inner History of the New America '' ( WINNER ) Alan Taylor , `` The Internal Enemy : Slavery and War in Virginia , 1772-1832 '' Lawrence Wright , `` Going Clear : Scientology , Hollywood , & the Prison of Belief '' Poetry . Frank Bidart , `` Metaphysical Dog '' Lucie Brock-Broido , `` Stay , Illusion '' Adrian Matejka , `` The Big Smoke '' Matt Rasmussen , `` Black Aperture '' Mary Szybist , `` Incarnadine : Poems '' ( WINNER ) Young people 's literature . Kathi Appelt , `` The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp '' Cynthia Kadohata , `` The Thing About Luck '' ( WINNER ) Tom McNeal , `` Far Far Away '' Meg Rosoff , `` Picture Me Gone '' Gene Luen Yang , `` Boxers & Saints ''
John McBride wins for ` ` The Great Lord Bird '' The National Book Foundation presents awards to winners in various categories . Established in 1946 , the accolade is one of the most prestigious U.S. literary awards .