The National Book Award

The National Book Awards has announced the winners on Nov. 17 2004, are among the most anticipated commendations of the year for publishers.  Lily Tuck for her novel "The News from Paraguay" is this year's winner.  She has a long history of writing about women at a loss in foreign lands.  Children's author Judy Blume received an honorary medal, the second straight year the prize went to someone as notable for popular success as literary greatness. Sales of her books exceed 75 million and her work is loved by young people, and eyed by censors, for its frank narratives about families, religion and sexuality.

The National Books Awards are modeled after the Academy Awards, with the book world putting on its evening wear and gathering to hear live who wins in four competitive categories -- fiction, nonfiction (given Wednesday to Kevin Boyle's "Arc of Justice"), poetry (Jean Valentine's "Door in the Mountain") and young people's literature (Pete Hautman's "Godless").

The National Book Award name 20 finalists named in four categories.    The list of fiction finalists consisted of five female authors, all living in New York City, and included two first-time novelists, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, for "Madeleine Is Sleeping" (Harcourt), and Christine Schutt, for "Florida" (TriQuarterly Books / Northwestern University Press).  The fiction finalists also include two books of related short stories. "Our Kind" (Scribner), by Kate Walbert, tales of a group of women who came of age in the 1950“s now facing life after husbands and children have left home; and "Ideas of Heaven" (W. W. Norton), by Joan Silber, stories set in the past and present, in France, Italy, New York and China, where a minor element in one becomes a major theme in the next.  Also a finalist is "The News From Paraguay" (HarperCollins), by Lily Tuck, a historical epic set in 19th-century South America.   This is the first time the fiction short list has not included any men.

Non-Fiction

Among the other nonfiction finalists this year is "Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare", an account of Shakespeare“s life in Elizabethan England by Stephen Greenblatt. The book is one of three finalists for W. W. Norton, one of the few large publishing houses that are not part of a larger media company.

Also on the short list are "Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights and Murder in the Jazz Age", by Kevin Boyle (Henry Holt); "Washington“s Crossing" by David Hackett Fischer (Oxford University Press), an analysis of a pivotal moment of the American Revolution; and "Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett" by Jennifer Gonnerman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).

John Leonard, a literary critic who has served on judging panels like the one that chose the finalists here, said the authors who are often ignored are "the people who have already paid their dues."

"Maybe this is not the best Philip Roth," he said of "The Plot Against America" (Houghton Mifflin), "but my gosh, isn“t it one of the five?" On the other hand, Mr. Leonard admitted that he had not read all of the finalists and said that he, like many critics of the list, tends to favor what he has read.  "So good for them," he said of the fiction panel, whose chairman was Rick Moody and which also included Linda Hogan, Randall Kenan, Stewart O“Nan and Susan Straight.

Poetry

Among the poetry finalists is Donald Justice, for "Collected Poems" (Alfred A. Knopf). A three-time finalist and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1979, Mr. Justice died this year at 78.  The other finalists in poetry include "Shoah Train" (Etruscan Press), by William Heyen; "The Rest of Love" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), by Carl Phillips; "Goest" (Alice James Books), by Cole Swensen; and "Door in the Mountain" (Wesleyan University Press), by Jean Valentine.

Young People“s Literature

In the category of young people“s literature, the five finalists included three books published by Simon & Schuster and two by Megan Tinley Books, an imprint of Little, Brown.  The finalists are "Honey, Baby, Sweetheart" (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers), by Deb Caletti; "Godless" (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers) by Pete Hautman; "Harlem Stomp!: A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance" (Megan Tingley Books / Little, Brown), by Laban Carrick Hill; "The Legend of Buddy Bush" (Margaret K. McElderry Books / Simon & Schuster Children“s Publishing), by Shelia P. Moses; and "Luna: A Novel" (Megan Tingley Books / Little, Brown), by Julie Anne Peters.

Related Links:

    The National Book Award for Fiction

    The National Book Award is awarded by the National Book Foundation. Listed here are the winners in the Fiction category.  For the first time in the Awards' 55-year history, all five of the fiction finalists are women.

    2004 Fiction Finalists:

    The National Book Award for Fiction 

    9/11 report in the running for top US literary award

    The report by the federal commission investigating the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US was a surprise nominee for one of the most prestigious American literary prizes - the National Book Award. The lengthy report, which has sold more than one million copies since its publication in July, was nominated in the non-fiction category, together with more traditional fare such as a Shakespeare biography.

    While government studies are hardly known for raising readers“ pulses, The 9/11 Commission Report (digital version / audio version) has been widely praised for its narrative force and accessibility, as well its comprehensiveness. The report contained a broad indictment of United States intelligence and air defences in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which killed almost 3,000 people

    The 567-page report was compiled by a 10-member bipartisan commission after a two-year investigation. Republican Thomas Kean, the Sept 11 commission“s chairman, said members of the bipartisan panel were determined that the work should be written as clearly as possible.

    9/11 report in the running for top US ...