The finalists for the 2012 National Book Awards were announced on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program yesterday (October 10, 2012).
The announcement revealed a high calibre short-list, containing a number of authors who have already been decorated with other literary accolades. In the Fiction list, which is considered by many to be the most high-profile of the awards, are Junot Diaz’s ‘This Is How You Lose Her,’ Dave Egger’s ‘A Hologram For The King,’ ‘The Round House’ by Louise Erdrich, ‘Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk’ by Ben Fountain and Kevin Powers’ ‘The Yellow Birds.’
Junot Diaz was recently the recipient of a MacArthur ‘genius grant,” and has previously won the Pulitzer Prize, for his debut novel The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao. Dave Eggers, meanwhile, won a lifetime achievement award from the National Book Foundation, back in 2009 when he was just 39. Both Powers and Fountain have been nominated for their debut novels.
In the Non-Fiction prize category, are Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945-1956 by Anne Applebaum, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo, The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 4 by Robert A. Caro, House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid and The Boy Kings of Texas by Domingo Martinez. Shadid sadly died earlier this year, after suffering an asthma attack whilst in Syria.
The poetry list is equally robust, with the following nominations: Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations by David Ferry, Heavenly Bodies by Cynthia Huntington, Fast Animal by Tim Seibles and Night of the Republic by Alan Shapiro, Meme by Susan Wheeler. And on the Young People’s Literature shortlist: Goblin Secrets by William Alexander, Out of Reach by Carrie Arcos, Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick, Endangered by Eliot Schrefer and Bomb: The Race to Build-and Steal-the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin.
The National Book Awards were first established back in 1950. Eligibility depends on a book being written by a American and published by an American publisher. Self-published books are eligible only if the writer also publishes works by other authors.
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