National Book Awards

Yesterday, the National Book Foundation hosted the 60th National Book Awards benefit dinner and ceremony in New York City. Four authors (one each in the following categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people’s literature) were honored with a National Book Award, one of the three most prestigious book awards an American authors can win.

The big winner of the night was Colum McCann in the Fiction category for his novel, Let the Great World Spin. McCann's novel takes the real-life exploits of Philippe Petit (who walked on a tightrope between the Twin Towers in 1974) and centers an ensemble of stories around this event. Amazon.com named it Best of the Month in June 2009. (For reasons I’ve never quite understood, the “big winner” is always the fiction winner, which somehow implies that the nonfiction, poetry and YA authors aren’t as good. But I digress). The other awards were given to: The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles (nonfiction); Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy by Keith Waldrop (poetry); and Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose (young people's literature).

Since 2009 marked the 60th anniversary of the NBA’s, the National Book Foundation asked the public to vote for the Best of the NBA Fiction (what did I tell about fiction hogging the spotlight?). After writers from across the country narrowed down the previous fiction winners to six finalists, every average Joe and Jane was encouraged to vote for their pick online. After a month of voting, America (or at least the literate, literary-aware portion of America) spoke: the best National Book Award fiction book is Flannery O'Connor's Complete Stories.

The awards ceremony also featured special awards: Gore Vidal was honored for his Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and Dave Eggers received the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.

The National Book Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the previous year. Along with the National Book Critics Circle Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, the NBA is one of the three most prestigious book awards given to American authors.

[Photo Credit: National Book Foundation]