Thursday, November 19, 2009

National Book Awards - and nice shout out

So the National Book Awards were presented last night. Winners:

Fiction: Colum McCann for Let the Great World Spin (Random House)
(which pleases me as I'm reading Borstal Boy and feeling all Irish nationalist)

Non-Fiction: T. J. Stiles for The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (Knopf)

Poetry: Keith Waldrop for Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy (Univ. of California Press)

Young People's Literature: Phillip Hoose for Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice (FSG/Kroupa)

Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: Gore Vidal

The Literarian Award: Dave Eggers

The Best of the National Book Awards Fiction: Flannery O'Connor's The Complete Stories

Congrats to all!

But I also want to applaud Stiles, who reportedly did good:


Stiles said that books “are at the heart of our culture,” and went on to thank the vast army of workers—“ a complete eco-system” —that make books possible. “The editorial assistants, the copyeditors, the designers, agents, publicists, the guys in the mailroom, librarians—I hope e-books aren’t fooling us into thinking these people aren’t needed.”

I always appreciate when authors take advantage of an opportunity like this one to remind folks about all the good people who makes a great book possible.

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