2019 National Book Award Winner Announced

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
November 21, 2019

We are thrilled to announce that Susan Choi–Lecturer in English (and Yale alumna)—has been awarded the 2019 National Book Award in Fiction for her acclaimed novel, Trust Exercise.  According to the judges’ citation:  ”Trust Exercise by Susan Choi blends the intellectual rigor of post-modern technique with a story that is timely, mesmerizing, and, in the end, unsettling. The exploration of different character perspectives lays bare the myth-making of the self and the damage that storytelling can do to others. Choi’s virtuoso accomplishment on the sentence level is often extraordinary—and pivots in astonishing and non-traditional directions while conforming to traditional ideas of excellence.”  This year’s judges for the fiction category were Dorothy Allison, Ruth Dickey, Javier Ramirez, Danzy Senna,  and Jeff VanderMeer.  Congratulations, Susan!