“I have waited 15 years for this moment,” Ta-Nehisi Coates said Wednesday.
He could have been speaking about this moment on stage, accepting the National Book Award for nonfiction for “Between the World and Me,” a meditation on race written to his teen son. But he was referring to this moment in America, when police violence against black people has become the subject of demonstrations and debate.
Fifteen years ago, Coates’ friend and Howard University classmate Prince Jones was killed by a police officer who mistook him for a suspect in a gun theft. Jones, who was unarmed, was shot five times in the back. Coates said the officer responsible was never disciplined for the shooting, according to the Associated Press.
” ‘Between the World and Me’ comes out of that place,” Coates said, adding that similar shootings keep happening. Now, though, the shootings are increasingly captured on film and reported via social media.
Adam Johnson was honored Wednesday with the fiction award for his short-story collection “Fortune Smiles” that deals with his familiar theme of moral struggle. And Neal Shusterman accepted the award for young people’s literature for “Challenger Deep.” The novel about a schizophrenic teen was inspired by Shusterman’s son Brendan. The poetry award went to Robin Coste Lewis for “Voyage of the Sable Venus,” a debut collection that examines race and identity across generations and millennia.
All four winners will receive $10,000.
