GioFX
14-10-2004, 00:31
Da Nytimes.com (National Book Awards Finalists Include 9/11 Commission Report):
National Book Awards Finalists Include 9/11 Commission Report
By EDWARD WYATT
Published: October 13, 2004
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2004/10/13/national/911.book.jpg
The final report of the 9/11 Commission was selected as a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction.
The final report of the 9/11 Commission, the eminently readable government account of the events surrounding the devastating terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, was selected as a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction yesterday, one of 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). This is the first time the fiction short list has not included any men.
The National Book Awards, whose winners will be announced on Nov. 17, are among the most anticipated commendations of the year for publishers. But the list of finalists is often greeted by a collective "Who?," as the judges often seem to many to go out of their way to avoid books that have garnered critical acclaim and popular attention.
This year is no different. Conspicuous in their absence from the fiction list are, for example, Philip Roth and Cynthia Ozick, both of whom published novels this fall that attracted considerable attention. Only one of the fiction finalists has sold more than 2,000 copies of her book, according to BookScan, the unit of Nielsen Entertainment that tracks book sales.
Some literary observers expressed bewilderment at the fiction selections. "I thought this was a really weak year for fiction," said Benjamin Schwarz, literary editor for The Atlantic, "but I still wouldn't have guessed that any of these would have been strong contenders.''
Missing from the nonfiction list, meanwhile, are Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton and any of the many political titles that have dominated the nonfiction best-seller lists in this election year - with the exception, of course, of "The 9/11 Report."
The final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States is not the first government report to make the National Book Award list, however. In 1973, "Attica," the official report of New York State's special commission investigating the prison riot at Attica, was a finalist in the contemporary affairs category, one of several categories that have been eliminated from the competition. The Attica report lost to "Fire in the Lake," the Vietnam study by Frances FitzGerald.
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).
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.
"The National Book Awards often produces an eccentric list," Mr. Schwarz said.
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.
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. 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 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.
In young people's literature, 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.
National Book Awards Finalists Include 9/11 Commission Report
By EDWARD WYATT
Published: October 13, 2004
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2004/10/13/national/911.book.jpg
The final report of the 9/11 Commission was selected as a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction.
The final report of the 9/11 Commission, the eminently readable government account of the events surrounding the devastating terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, was selected as a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction yesterday, one of 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). This is the first time the fiction short list has not included any men.
The National Book Awards, whose winners will be announced on Nov. 17, are among the most anticipated commendations of the year for publishers. But the list of finalists is often greeted by a collective "Who?," as the judges often seem to many to go out of their way to avoid books that have garnered critical acclaim and popular attention.
This year is no different. Conspicuous in their absence from the fiction list are, for example, Philip Roth and Cynthia Ozick, both of whom published novels this fall that attracted considerable attention. Only one of the fiction finalists has sold more than 2,000 copies of her book, according to BookScan, the unit of Nielsen Entertainment that tracks book sales.
Some literary observers expressed bewilderment at the fiction selections. "I thought this was a really weak year for fiction," said Benjamin Schwarz, literary editor for The Atlantic, "but I still wouldn't have guessed that any of these would have been strong contenders.''
Missing from the nonfiction list, meanwhile, are Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton and any of the many political titles that have dominated the nonfiction best-seller lists in this election year - with the exception, of course, of "The 9/11 Report."
The final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States is not the first government report to make the National Book Award list, however. In 1973, "Attica," the official report of New York State's special commission investigating the prison riot at Attica, was a finalist in the contemporary affairs category, one of several categories that have been eliminated from the competition. The Attica report lost to "Fire in the Lake," the Vietnam study by Frances FitzGerald.
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).
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.
"The National Book Awards often produces an eccentric list," Mr. Schwarz said.
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.
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. 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 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.
In young people's literature, 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.