Sarah M. Broom’s (’04) The Yellow House wins National Book Award for Nonfiction

Sarah M. Broom (’04). Photo: Beowulf Sheehan

Sarah M. Broom’s (’04) exquisite debut book “The Yellow House,” that tells a hundred years of her family and their relationship to home in a neglected area of one of America’s most mythologized cities, has won the National Book Award for Nonfiction writing.

It is the story of a mother’s struggle against a house’s entropy, and that of a prodigal daughter who left home only to reckon with the pull that home exerts, even after the Yellow House was wiped off the map after Hurricane Katrina. The Yellow House expands the map of New Orleans to include the stories of its lesser known natives, guided deftly by one of its native daughters, to demonstrate how enduring drives of clan, pride, and familial love resist and defy erasure.

Bloom (’04) is a nationally recognized author and journalist whose work has appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, and O, The Oprah Magazine. A native New Orleanian, she began her writing career as a newspaper journalist working in Rhode Island, Dallas, and Hong Kong (for TIME Asia). As a 2016 recipient of the prestigious Whiting Award for Creative Nonfiction, Broom gracefully interweaves the personal tragedy of being uprooted with the political discontents of the United States in her first book and memoir, The Yellow House.

AWARDS & HONORS:

It became one of the most successful and treasured books of 2019, including winning the National Book Award for Nonfiction. It was also:

Named one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by the New York Times
Named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times Book Review
Named one of the “10 Best Books of 2019” by the New York Times Book Review, Seattle Times, Chicago Public Library, the Chicago Tribune, and Slate
Named a Best Book of 2019 by the Washington Post, NPR’s Book Concierge, NPR’s Fresh Air, the Guardian, BookPage, New York Public Library, and Shelf Awareness
Named One of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2019