Ta-Nehisi Coates won the National Book Award for nonfiction Wednesday night for “Between the World and Me,” a visceral, blunt exploration of his experience of being a black man in America, which was published this summer in the middle of a national dialogue about race relations and inequality.
星期三晚上，塔-奈西希·科特斯(Ta-Nehisi Coates)的《在世界与我之间》(Between the World and Me)获得国家图书奖非虚构类大奖，这是一部真诚直率的作品，探索作者身为黑人在美国的经历。今年夏天它出版之时，正值整个国家都在讨论种族关系与种族不平等话题的时机。
“Every day you turn on the TV and see some kind of violence being directed at black people,” Mr. Coates said in an emotional acceptance speech. “Over and over and over again. And it keeps happening.”
“每一天打开电视，都能看到针对黑人的暴力，”科特斯在动人的获奖致辞中说，“一次又一次，这种事还在持续发生。”
The fiction award went to Adam Johnson for “Fortune Smiles,” a collection of surreal and comic short stories that deal with natural disasters, technology and politics, and take place in settings ranging from Palo Alto, Calif., and New Orleans to North Korea. The judges called Mr. Johnson “one of the most talented writers of his generation” and called his stories by turns “surprising, wondrous, comic and devastating.” Mr. Johnson won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2012 novel “The Orphan Master’s Son.”
今年的虚构类奖项由亚当·约翰逊(Adam Johnson)的《幸运在微笑》(Fortune Smile)获得，这部短篇小说集中充满超现实与滑稽的故事，内容包括天灾、技术与政治，有的发生在加利福尼亚的帕罗奥图，有的发生在新奥尔良，还有的发生在朝鲜。评委说约翰逊是“同代人中最有才华的一位作者”，并说他的小说“时而惊人、时而奇妙、时而滑稽，时而可怕”。2012年，约翰逊曾凭着小说《孤儿大师之子》(The Orphan Master’s Son)获得普利策奖。
“Between the World and Me,” which was published by Spiegel & Grau, was one of the most celebrated and widely discussed books of the year, and won comparisons to the work of James Baldwin.
《在世界与我之间》与詹姆斯·鲍德温(James Baldwin)的著作角逐该奖项并最终胜出，它由Spiegel & Grau出版社出版，是今年最著名，也是最受广泛讨论的一本书。
Mr. Coates, a correspondent for The Atlantic, wrote the book in the form of a letter to his son. He dedicated the award to his college friend, Prince Jones, who was shot to death by a police officer who mistook him for a criminal. “I’m a black man in America. I can’t punish that officer; ‘Between the World and Me’ comes out of that place,” Mr. Coates said. “I can’t secure the safety of my son. I just don’t have that power. But what I do have the power to do is say, ‘You won’t enroll me in this lie. You won’t make me part of it.’ “
科特斯是《大西洋月刊》(The Atlantic)的记者，这本书以他给儿子的信的形式写成。他把这个奖献给自己大学时期的友人普林斯·琼斯(Prince Jones)，琼斯被警察误认为犯罪分子，遭到射杀。“我是个生活在美国的黑人。我不能惩罚那个警察；《在世界与我之间》就是这样开始构思的，”科特斯说，“我不能保证我儿子的安全。我没有那个力量。但我有力量说出，‘你不能让我加入这个谎言，你不能把我算在内。’”
The National Book Award, which was established in 1950, has gone to some of the country’s most celebrated authors, including William Faulkner, Saul Bellow and Flannery O’Connor. Presented by the National Book Foundation, the award was open to American authors who published books from Dec. 1, 2014, to Nov. 30, 2015. The prizes were presented at a black-tie dinner in Manhattan at Cipriani Wall Street, with more than 700 guests.
国家图书奖于1950年创立，曾经颁发给这个国家最著名的作家，包括威廉·福克纳(William Faulkner)、索尔·贝娄(Saul Bellow)和弗兰纳里·奥康纳( Flannery O’Connor)。该奖项由国家图书基金会主办，评奖范围包括任何美国作家从2014年12月1日至2015年11月30日出版的图书。颁奖仪式是在曼哈顿的西普利亚尼华尔街饭店举办的正装晚宴，有700多名宾客出席。
Along with “Fortune Smiles,” finalists in the fiction category included Hanya Yanagihara’s “A Little Life,” which follows four ambitious young college friends in New York as one of them grapples with his dark past; Lauren Groff’s novel “Fates and Furies,” which tells the story of a marriage from the husband and wife’s perspectives, revealing the secrets they kept; Karen E. Bender’s short-story collection “Refund;” and Angela Flournoy’s debut novel, “The Turner House,” about multiple generations of a Detroit family.
除了《幸运在微笑》，入围虚构类决选名单的还包括柳原樱(Hanya Yanagihara)的《小人生》(A Little Life)，它讲述纽约四个年轻有志的大学生朋友们的故事，其中一人要与自己的黑暗过去作斗争；劳伦·格罗夫(Lauren Groff)的小说《命运与愤怒》(Fate and Furies)，分别从丈夫和妻子的角度讲述一段婚姻的故事，揭示出她们各自的秘密；此外还有卡伦·E·班达(Karen E. Bender)的短篇小说集《返款》(Refund)和安吉拉·弗洛诺伊(Angela Flournoy)的处女小说《特纳之家》(The Turner House)，讲述一个底特律家族几代人的故事。
The award for Young People’s Literature was given to Neal Shusterman’s “Challenger Deep,” a novel about a mentally ill teenager who has dark fantasies about traveling to the deepest point on earth, which was inspired by Mr. Shusterman’s son.
青年文学奖(Young People’s Literature)被授予尼尔·舒斯特曼(Neal Shusterman)的《挑战者之深》(Challenger Deep)，这部小说讲述一个患有精神疾病的少年怀着阴郁的幻想，想象自己在地心最深处旅行。舒斯特曼创作的灵感来自他的儿子。
The poet Robin Coste Lewis won for her collection, “Voyage of the Sable Venus,” a meditation on cultural and artistic depictions of the black female figure that juxtaposes autobiographical verses with reflections on cultural stereotypes and art.
诗人罗宾·科斯特·刘易斯(Robin Coste Lewis)凭诗集《黑色维纳斯的旅行》(Voyage of the Sable Venus)获得诗歌奖。这部充满沉思的诗集既是对一个黑人女性角色的文化与艺术的描绘，也是一部自传性的诗歌，反思文化刻板形象与艺术。
The best-selling novelist James Patterson received the Literarian Award, for outstanding service to the literary community, in recognition of his philanthropic efforts to support independent bookstores and promote literacy in public schools. Mr. Patterson, who has sold more than 300 million copies of his books, has donated $2.75 million to school libraries and bookstores.
畅销小说家詹姆斯·帕特森(James Patterson)凭他对文学界的卓越服务获得文学贡献奖(Literarian Award)，以表彰他支持独立书店，在公立学校扫盲的慈善努力。帕特森的书卖出了三亿册，他曾向各学校图书馆与书店捐献过275万美元。
In his acceptance speech, Mr. Patterson joked about his outsider status as a commercial author in elite literary company, calling himself the “Big Mac at Cipriani.” He issued a call for publishers to “innovate more.”
作为商业作家，帕特森在精英文学圈中算是局外人，在获奖致辞中，他拿这个开起了玩笑，说自己是“西普利亚尼的巨无霸汉堡”。他还号召出版社“多做革新”。
“Let’s all be literarians, whatever the hell that means,” he said. “Let’s try to make sure there’s another generation of readers.”
“让我们大家都成为文学家，不管这个词到底是什么意思，”他说，“我们要努力让下一代人还读书。”
The novelist Don DeLillo, whose eerily prescient works explore technology, surveillance and terrorism, was given the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters for his “diverse body of work that examines the mores of contemporary modern American culture.”
小说家唐·德里罗(Don DeLillo)的作品如同古怪的预言，探索技术、监视与恐怖主义，他因其“多样的作品，审视了现当代美国文化中的风俗”而被授予杰出贡献勋章(Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters)。
Mr. DeLillo, who won a National Book Award for his novel “White Noise” in 1985, is famously reticent and rarely grants interviews or discusses his work. He will release a new novel, “Zero K,” about a billionaire whose wife has a terminal illness, next May.
德里罗曾于1985年因小说《白噪音》(White Noise)获得国家图书奖，他以寡言少语闻名，极少接受采访或谈起自己的作品。明年五月他将出版新的小说《零K》(Zero K)，讲述一个妻子病入膏肓的亿万富翁的故事。
He was typically understated in his acceptance speech, and at his request, his remarks were not streamed on videocast. Rather than talking about his work or his evolution as a writer, he spoke reverently about a room where he keeps his collection of old paperbacks, and what those books mean to him.
他在获奖致辞中显得一如既往的低调，在他的要求之下，他的致辞没有在网络广播中播放。他没有谈起自己的作品或写作的演化，而是虔诚地谈起自己用来收藏老旧平装书的屋子，以及那些书籍对于他的意义。
“When I visit the room, I’m not the writer,” he said. “That’s the guy who lives down the hall. Here I’m not the writer at all, I’m the grateful reader.”
“每当走进那间屋子，我就不是作家，”他说。“那个住在大厅里的家伙才是作家。在这件屋子里，我根本就不是什么作家，只是一个心怀感恩的读者。”