From a story on latimes.com by Emily St. Martin headlined “National Book Awards close with a collective speech calling for a ceasefire in Gaza”:

L.A. author Justin Torres and historian Ned Blackhawk were the big winners at the 74th National Book Awards, honored for their works in fiction and nonfiction, respectively, as the prestigious literary prizes were announced Wednesday at a gala at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. But they shared the spotlight with a closing speech about the Israel-Hamas war, preceded by a controversy over free speech and the role of politics in literary culture.