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NEW YORK — National Book Awards judges honored authors worldwide last Wednesday night, from Lebanese novelist Rabih Alameddine’s “The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)” to Chicago-born poet Patricia Smith’s “The Intentions of Thunder.” Alameddine’s narrative of intense family bonds within the chaos of modern Lebanon received the fiction prize, while Smith, who has received numerous previous awards for her lyricism and intensity, won for poetry. The nonfiction prize was given to Egyptian Canadian novelist-journalist Omar El Akkad for his fierce indictment of the contemporary West, “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This.” Iranian American Daniel Nayeri’s “The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story” won for young people’s literature and Argentine Gabriela Cabezón Cámara’s “We Are Green and Trembling,” translated from Spanish by Robin Myers, was cited for translated literature. The awards have often served as a kind of counter voice to current events. The night’s honorees expressed gratitude for prizes bestowed and for literature itself, and horror and disenchantment at the political and social climate, from immigration raids in the U.S. by masked agents to the carnage in the Middle East. “I’m going to speak in Spanish because there are fascists who don’t like that,” Cabezón Cámara said, her words translated on stage by Myers. Alameddine’s speech, like his novel, combined humor and agony. He began with a lament for the bombing of a Palestinian refugee camp but went on to joke about the demands of his agent, Nicole Aragi, and thank everyone from his gastrointestinal doctor to the “psychiatrist who has been telling me to get over myself for more than 20 years.” Honorary awards were presented to fiction writer George Saunders and author-publisher-mentor Roxane Gay. Saunders, widely praised for his legacy of dark humor and warm compassion, was this year’s recipient of the medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, previously given to Toni Morrison and Robert Caro among others. He remembered his early growth as a writer, and how revision changed him on the page and in real life, a “truth-seeking” process that sets the artist apart from the dictator and other bullies. “We’re open to finding out how things actually are, not how we think they are, not how we wish they are, but how they actually are,” he said. “And this puts us in a less delusional relation to reality.” Gay, given the Literarian medal for her contributions to the book community, noted that writing was a solitary endeavor but that sharing the word was a different challenge. She cited proudly her history of publishing and promoting diverse voices, mocked the idea that “straight white men just can’t catch a break” and urged the industry to change. “There is room for all of our voices and there are people in this very room who have the power to do better,” she told the audience. “You have the power to abandon old ways of thinking and nonsense metrics like social media followings as a determining factor in buying a manuscript.”The post Novelist Rabih Alameddine, poet Patricia Smith win National Book Awards first appeared on The North State Journal.

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Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17,” a new batch of “Stranger Things'” final season and Kevin Hart debuting a new comedy special on Netflix are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you. Also, among the streaming offerings worth your time this week: “Everybody Loves Raymond” gets a 30th anniversary special on CBS, the Hallmark’s special “A Grand Ole Opry Christmas” with Brad Paisley and Mickey Guyton, and a new Beatles documentary series hits Disney+. MOVIES TO STREAM Taiwanese filmmaker Shih-Ching Tsou, known for collaborating with and producing several Sean Baker films including “Tangerine” and “The Florida Project,” makes her solo directorial debut with “Left-Handed Girl,” about a single mother and her two daughters who return to Taipei to open a stand at a night market. Netflix acquired the film after it was warmly received during the Cannes Film Festival and Taiwan has already selected the film as its Oscar submission. It begins streaming on Netflix on Nov. 28. Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17” arrives on Prime Video on Thursday, Nov. 27, for some dystopian holiday viewing. In her review for The Associated Press, Jocelyn Noveck praised Robert Pattinson’s performance (or, rather, performances) as an expendable who is constantly being reprinted anew. She writes, “It’s his movie, and he saves it from Bong’s tendencies to overstuff the proceedings. In an extremely physical, committed, even exhausting performance, Pattinson takes what could have been an unwieldy mess and makes it much less, well, expendable.” OK, “The Last Duel,” streaming on Hulu on Sunday, Nov. 30 might be four years old but it’s a far better option than, say, “Flight Risk” (on HBO Max on Wednesday). Ridley Scott’s medieval tale, written by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Nicole Holofcener, is a brilliant spin on the historical epic told from three different perspectives, Damon’s Jean de Carrouges, Adam Driver’s Jacques Le Gris and Jodie Comer’s Marguerite. In his review for the AP, film writer Jake Coyle wrote that it “is more like a medieval tale deconstructed, piece by piece, until its heavily armored male characters and the genre’s mythologized nobility are unmasked.” MUSIC TO STREAM In 2021, over Thanksgiving, Disney+ released Peter Jackson’s six-hour “The Beatles: Get Back” to its streaming platform. The gargantuan project provided fans with a deep-dive into the band’s “Let It Be” sessions – including footage of their entire rooftop concert, shared in full for the first time. It was an ideal release date, to say the least. After all that delicious food, who doesn’t want to settle in for a lengthy journey into one of the greatest musical acts of all time? Well, in 2025, there’s yet another reason to be grateful: “The Beatles Anthology” documentary series is on Disney+. That’s nine episodes tracing their journey. Lock in. ‘Tis the season for Hallmark holiday films. And for the country music fanatic, that means “A Grand Ole Opry Christmas.” The film follows a woman forced to confront her musical past and heritage in the esteemed venue – and there may or may not be some time travel and Christmas magic involved. Stay tuned for the all-star cameos: Brad Paisley, Megan Moroney, Mickey Guyton, Rhett Akins, Tigirlily Gold and more make an appearance. It’s now streaming on Hallmark+. SERIES TO STREAM It’s hard to believe that “Everybody Loves Raymond” has been off the air for two decades. The multicamera sitcom starred Ray Romano and Patricia Heaton as Ray and Debra Barone, a young married couple whose daily lives are interrupted regularly by Ray’s meddling parents, played by Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts, who live across the street. CBS recently taped a 30th anniversary special which is now streaming on Paramount+. Hosted by Romano and creator, Phil Rosenthal, it recreates the set of the Barone living room and features interviews with cast members including Romano, Heaton, Brad Garrett and Monica Horan. There will also be a tribute to Boyle…