In a year of especially tight competition, Louise Erdrich won the 2012 National Book Award for fiction with her novel, "The Round House," the tale of a teenage boy's quest to investigate an attack on his mother, and his struggle to come to terms with racial injustice.

As the National Book Awards celebrated its 63^rd anniversary, the ceremony packed about 670 guests into the lavish Cipriani restaurant on Wall Street. Ms. Erdrich accepted the award partly in her Native American tongue. She wanted to acknowledge "the grace and endurance of native women," she said.

She added, "This is a book about a huge case of injustice ongoing on reservations. Thank you for giving it a wider audience."

Ms. Erdrich is the author of 14 novels, including "Love Medicine," which was published in 1984. In April 2009, her novel "The Plague of Doves" was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

"The Round House" has won acclaim for its stark portrayal of racial and cultural tensions.

"Written with undeniable urgency, and illuminating the harsh realities of contemporary life in a community where Ojibwe [Native Americans] and white live uneasily together, 'The Round House' is a brilliant and entertaining novel, a masterpiece of literary fiction," says publisher Harper.

"Louise Erdrich embraces tragedy, the comic, a spirit world very much present in the lives of her all-too-human characters, and a tale of injustice that is, unfortunately, an authentic reflection of what happens in our own world today.

While past years found many obscure names nominated for the fiction prize, 2012 saw many established authors vying for the trophy, including the Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Díaz, who was nominated for "This Is How You Lose Her," and Dave Eggers, nominated for "A Hologram for the King."

To be eligible for an award, a book must have been written by a United States citizen. Winners received $10,000 and a bronze statue.

For non-fiction, Katherine Boo took home an award for her debut work, "Beyond the Beautiful Forevers." Boo is a Pulitzer Prize winner herself for her work as a journalist and currently works at the New Yorker. Boo's work focuses on a boy living in a Mumbai slum. She said that she was thankful to be given the chance to tell the story, which would have been ignored if she hadn't written it.

"If this prize means anything," Boo said, "it is that small stories in so-called hidden places matter because they implicate and complicate what we consider to be the larger story, which is the story of people who do have political and economic powers."

The nonfiction category was also filled with a strong field of finalists, including Robert Caro's latest book on Lyndon Johnson and the late Anthony Shadid's "House of Stone."

David Ferry took home the poetry prize for "Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations."