National Book Awards 2011 (LIVEBLOG)
Tonight, the National Book Awards 2011 are being announced by the National Book Foundation at an awards dinner at Cipriani - a handful of blocks from Occupy Wall Street, where apparently the police have tonight again seized all books again.
Anyway, the black tie event is hosted by John Lithgow, who had a book of his own out this year.
We're liveblogging the event, and discussing the nominated books as we go. Follow along, and join the conversation in the comments or by tweeting us @HuffPostBooks
"This is a life's work and I am only at the beginning."
"I find myself fighting back tears... partly because of the acceptance speech I heard before me... my book is about the power of books to cross boundaries, to speak impossibly across space and time and distance... what the magic of the written word is and about the strangeness of a poem written two thousand years ago, a great poem and a difficult poem disappearing for a thousand years, and then coming back."
Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
| @ sarahw : Lithgow: "that was the best acceptance speech I've ever heard for anything in my life." Yup. #NBA11 |
| @ The_Millions : All in favor of letting Nikky Finney host the rest of #nba11 say "Aye" |
She is talking about the restrictions of reading and insurgency for slaves in the 1780s. It's a poetic response that we won't try to type, except: "Tonight these forbidden ones move around the room as they please... we shiver together."
She dedicates it to many people, including "Papa, chief opponent of the death penalty in South Carolina for 57 years."
| @ BookTV : Poetry winner 2011 @nationalbook award is Nikki Finney, "Head Off & Split" - dad is frmr chief justice of S.Carolina Supreme Crt |
"More than I ever could have expected from telling a little story about a time in my life."
| @ kikipuffs : Omg. Nerd sandwich on nerd bread with extra nerd on the side. "@jameyhatley: watching the @nationalbook awards online! #nerdgirl #wordgeek" |
He's reading a list of people who are there, have won awards, and presumably wanted a free meal.
Young People's Literature: My Name Is Not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson
How about you? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter (@HuffPostBooks)
Though let's not forget, this year's awards had a rocky start.
Here's a piece by Lauren Myracle on what it was like to be the first NBA Un-nominee.
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| @ The_Millions : UNCONFIRMED: this is every single conversation happening at #nba11 right now: http://t.co/Y7dK57Pa |
| @ nationalbook : Tables are being cleared, so we should be starting up again soon. #NBA11 |
#1."Chime" by Franny Billingsley
From National Book Award website:SUMMARY: Before Briony's stepmother died, she made sure Briony blamed herself for all the family's hardships. Now Briony has worn her guilt for so long it's become a second skin. She often escapes to the swamp, where she tells stories to the Old Ones, the spirits who haunt the marshes. But only witches can see the Old Ones, and in her village, witches are sentenced to death. Briony lives in fear her secret will be found out, even as she believes she deserves the worst kind of punishment.
Then Eldric comes along with his golden lion eyes and mane of tawny hair. He's as natural as the sun, and treats her as if she's extraordinary. And everything starts to change. As many secrets as Briony has been holding, there are secrets even she doesn't know.
ABOUT FRANNY: Franny Billingsley is the award-winning author of three previous books, including "The Folk Keeper," which received the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award for fiction. Her website.
ODD FACT: Used to be a full-time lawyer
Find an excerpt here.
#2. "My Name Is Not Easy" by Debby Dahl Edwardson
From NBA website:SUMMARY: Luke knows his Iñupiaq name is full of sounds white people can’t say. So he leaves it behind when he and his brothers are sent to boarding school hundreds of miles away from their Arctic village. At Sacred Heart School, students—Eskimo, Indian, White—line up on different sides of the cafeteria like there’s some kind of war going on. Here, speaking Iñupiaq—or any native language—is forbidden. And Father Mullen, whose fury is like a force of nature, is ready to slap down those who disobey. Luke struggles to survive at Sacred Heart. But he’s not the only one. There’s smart-aleck Amiq, a daring leader—if he doesn’t self-destruct; Chickie, blond and freckled, a different kind of outsider; and small, quiet Junior, noticing everything and writing it all down. They each have their own story to tell. But once their separate stories come together, things at Sacred Heart School—and the wider world—will never be the same.
About Debby: Debby Dahl Edwardson grew up in Minnesota, where she spent summers at her family cabin on an island in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota. She earned a BA from Colorado College, attended Nansenskolen in Norway, and has lived for over thirty years in Barrow, the northernmost community in Alaska. She earned an MFA from Vermont College in 2005. Debby and her husband George have seven children. Her picture book, Whale Snow (Charlesbridge, 2003), was named to the IRA Notable Books for a Global Society and the CBC/NSST lists and was named Best Picture Book by IPPY. Her first novel, Blessing’s Bead (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009) was selected by the Junior Library Guild and named to the IRA Notable Books for a Global Society, ALA/YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults, and Booklist’s Top 10 First Novels for Youth lists. For Debby's website, click here.
Twitter account: @DebbyEdwardson
For excerpt, click here.
Reviews: Publisher's Weekly#3. "Inside Out & Back Again" by Thanhha Lai
From NBA website:SUMMARY: For all the ten years of her life, Hà has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by—and the beauty of her very own papaya tree. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. Hà and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, Hà discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape—and the strength of her very own family.
This is the moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.
ABOUT THANHHA: Thanhha Lai was born in Vietnam and moved to Alabama in 1975. She lives in New York City with her family and teaches writing at Parsons School of Design. Inside Out & Back Again is her first book.
WEIRD FACT: really wants to own a chicken coop
For an excerpt, click here.
REVIEWS: Publisher's Weekly
#4. "Flesh & Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy" by Albert Marrin
From NBA website:SUMMARY: On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City burst into flames. The factory was crowded. The doors were locked to ensure workers stayed inside. One hundred forty-six people—mostly women—perished; it was one of the most lethal workplace fires in American history until September 11, 2001.
But the story of the fire is not the story of one accidental moment in time. It is a story of immigration and hard work to make it in a new country, as Italians and Jews and others traveled to America to find a better life. It is the story of poor working conditions and greedy bosses, as garment workers discovered the endless sacrifices required to make ends meet. It is the story of unimaginable, but avoidable, disaster. And it the story of the unquenchable pride and activism of fearless immigrants and women who stood up to business, got America on their side, and finally changed working conditions for our entire nation, initiating radical new laws we take for granted today.
ABOUT ALBERT: Albert Marrin is the author of more than three dozen books for young adults, including Saving the Buffalo (2006) and The Great Adventure: Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of Modern America (2007), numerous books for children, and four scholarly books. He has won several awards, including the 2008 National Humanities Medal, the Carter G. Woodson Award, the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award, and the James Madison Book Award.
For excerpt, click here.
REVIEWS: Publisher's Weekly
#5. "Okay for Now" by Gary D. Schmidt
From NBA website:SUMMARY: As a fourteen-year-old who just moved to a new town, with no friends and a louse for an older brother, Doug Swieteck has all the stats stacked against him. So begins a coming-of-age masterwork full of equal parts comedy and tragedy from Newbery Honor winner Gary D. Schmidt. As Doug struggles to be more than the “skinny thug” that his teachers and the police think him to be, he finds an unlikely ally in Lil Spicer—a fiery young lady who “smelled like daisies would smell if they were growing in a big field under a clearing sky after a rain.” In Lil, Doug finds the strength to endure an abusive father, the suspicions of a whole town, and the return of his oldest brother, forever scarred, from Vietnam. Together, they find a safe haven in the local library, inspiration in learning about the plates of John James Audubon’s birds, and a hilarious adventure on a Broadway stage. In this stunning novel, Schmidt expertly weaves multiple themes of loss and recovery in a story teeming with distinctive, unusual characters and invaluable lessons about love, creativity, and survival.
ABOUT GARY: Gary D. Schmidt is the author of Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy (2005), which won both Newbery and Printz Honors, and The Wednesday Wars (2008), winner of a Newbery Honor. He teaches writing in the English Department at Calvin College, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For Gary's website, click here.
For an excerpt, click here.
REVIEW: New York Times
| @ paperhaus : I guess the NBAs have, like, 22 courses? Is a tiny bird to be eaten under a napkin at the end? |
| @ ithardlymatt3rs : Title: John Ashbury waits for a taxi. #nba11 http://t.co/A4JuvDkP |
In Finney's fourth book of poetry, she chronicles significant figures in African American history including Rosa Parks and Condoleezza Rice.
On receiving the nomination, she told the committee: "I was mega-stunned and then mega-humbled."
Listen to her poetry here.
Yusef Komunyakaa, "The Chameleon Couch"Komunyakaa's latest collection is his thirteenth, and also his most personal according to reviewers. He is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and William Faulkner Prize.
Read an excerpt of his work here.
Carl Phillips, "Double Shadow"This is Carl Phillips' second nomination, the first being in 1998. The "Double Shadow" of the title refers to the "risk" and "faintheartedness" of life.
Here is a review of his work.
Adrienne Rich, "Tonight No Poetry Will Serve"A previous National Book Award Winner, her latest collection was inspired by the Webster's Dictionary entry for the word "serve."
She said in a "Paris Review" interview, "the music, the sound of words working together, has always mattered to me."
Bruce Smith, "Devotions"Covering a broad range of topics, including the Christian apocalypse and the laws of physics, Smith's collection has been dubbed "poetry for tough guys" by "The New York Times."
The concept of "devotion" is similar to that of an "ode," a popular type of poem we've seen in Keats' work. But unlike an ode, Smith wanted to proves love, " [as a nation: baseball, oil, or as a person: Al Green, coin-op laundries, crows, or as a writer: the unbidden]."
Laura Redniss, author of the first graphic novel to be nominated ever at the NBAs, teaches at Parsons the New School for Design.
She's certainly the only National Book Awards finalist to post pictures of dead frogs on her website.
Like Love and Capital, at its heart is a love story. There's a great interview with her here at Intelligent Life.
On her website, Redniss says that for this book about the Curies, she "traveled to Hiroshima to interview atomic bomb survivors, to the Nevada Test Site outside of Las Vegas to talk with weapons specialists, to Warsaw to see the house where Marie Curie was born, to the Curie Institut in Paris to interview the Curie’s granddaughter. I spoke with an oncologist exploring innovative radiation treatment in San Bernadino, California and the Idaho National Laboratory’s Director of the Center for Space Nuclear Research about how nuclear power and propulsion can enable space exploration and crystal cities built on the moon."
The book itself was created using a process that matches its theme: "I made the artwork for the book using a process called “cyanotype.” Cyanotype is a camera‐less photographic technique in which paper is coated with light‐sensitive chemicals. When the chemically-treated paper is exposed to the sun’s ultraviolet rays, it turns a deep blue color. Photographic imaging was critical to both the discovery of X-rays and of radioactivity, so it made sense to me to use a process based on the idea of exposure to create the images in Radioactive."
And it has a glow-in-the-dark cover!
As cool as that is, this is our favorite fact: "For the text, I designed a font based on the title pages of 18th and 19th Century manuscripts in the New York Public Library’s collections. It is named Eusapia LR for the croquet-playing, sexually ravenous Italian Spiritualist medium whose séances the Curies attended. Yup."
(Click that Wikipedia link, it's awesome.)
The author Manning Marable died three days before his book on Malcolm X was published. Here's his NYT obituary.
He was a Professor at Columbia University and founding director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies.
The book is nearly 600 pages long, and was prefigured by Marable's 1992 work, "On Malcolm X: His Message and Meaning"
Much of the book is a refutation of Malcolm's The Autobiography, written by Roots author Alex Haley, with facts taken from FBI and NYPD surveillance files as well as many private papers. The Guardian calls it "fastidiously researched."
Strangely, few of the reviews actually talk about the book itself, but rather the life of Malcolm X himself - The New Yorker's editor wrote a long piece that never quite lets us know what he thought of the book.
A negative review was apparently spiked by The Root.
Amiri Baraka, a friend of Marable's, said that in the book, he "clearly denigrates the black liberation movement."
A controversial nominee, it has already spawned a book of critical conversations around its content.
Stephen Greenblatt is a professor at Harvard. He was an NBA finalist in 2004 for" Will of the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare."
Factoid: as a kid, he was a camp counselor alongside Art Garfunkel. He also apparently once accidentally knocked over TS Eliot in the street. And here Greenblatt is being told "Don't f*ck with me" by Stephen Colbert.
The book is about the rediscovery of Lucretius' philosophical poem On The Nature Of Things - Greenblatt argues that its rediscovery by scribe Poggio Bracciolini led to the Renaissance
Greenblatt bought the poem himself for 10 cents in the bargain bin in the Yale bookstore. Here's his explanation in the New Yorker.
Images of Poggi and the manuscript can be seen here.
The book was described by the Washington Post as "strangely unserious" that "sets its intellectual bar too low."
But The Guardian thought otherwise, calling it "a superb essay on the transmission of ideas"
Deborah Baker, author of The Convert (Graywolf Press), lives between Brooklyn and Goa with her husband Amitav Ghosh, whose latest book River of Smoke is currently longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize, and was shortlisted for Hindu literary Prize
The Convert is about "what drives a young woman raised in a postwar New York City suburb to convert to Islam, abandon her country and Jewish faith, and embrace a life of exile in Pakistan?"
You can see photos of her subject, Maryam Jameelah, on Baker's website.
Her subject seems a complicated person, as this piece in The Paris Review shows - she apparently wrote to Baker, saying that the book was "a fair and just detailed appraisal" of her life. And then she wrote to the NY PL to say that Baker's portrayal was filled with lies.
A portrait of schizophrenia and obsession, much of the book originated from 2.5 feet of boxes containing correspondence and writing, currently sitting in the manuscripts division of the New York Public Library.
The book opens with Sigmund Freud quote, "Whoever undertakes to write a biography binds himself to lying, to concealment, to hypocrisy, to flummery."
Mary Gabriel is the only one of the non-fiction finalists to tweet! (though not tonight it seems)
Her book, Love and Capital (Little, Brown) is about Karl Marx's relationship with Jenny von Westphalen, the daughter of a Prussian Baron.
As a trained reporter for Reuters, she tried to write a book that humanizes the man behind the slogans. She explained why on our site.
She still works for Reuters - here she is blogging on the fall of Berlusconi - and used her skills in the book.
"I tried to write as a reporter on the scene of the 1871 Commune, not as a biographer looking at those events from a comfortable distance of 140-some years." she told the NBA website.
There's plenty of tragedy among the romance. When their daughter Franzisca died aged one, they didn't have enough money to buy a coffin. Marx cheated on Jenny with several women, including the family housekeeper.
And in the years after Karl and Jenny died (Spoiler Alert), the Marx's surviving children both committed suicide - one driven to it by her partner, the other in a death pact with her husband.
The New York Times called the book "huge, often gripping" - but also "too long by 200 pages and often undermined by flagrantly purple throbbings, minor mistakes and portentous overegging."
Three are women, two are men. Only one of them has died. Two are love stories. And, for the first time in NBA history, one is a graphic novel.
Jesmyn Ward, "Salvage the Bones"
Told during the days before Hurricane Katrina, the book's narrator is a pregnant fifteen-year-old, Esch. Her father is absent and alcoholic, and her brother is paranoid about his prize pit bull's sick puppies. This tale of protection and loss has decidedly Faulknarian and mythological themes.
This is Ward's second novel. Her first book, "Where the Line Bleeds," won a slew of awards, including a Black Caucus of the ALA Honor Award.
Ward refers to 'Salvage the Bones' as "the little book that could," and tweeted that she was an underdog.
A Mississippi native, she got her MFA from University of Michigan.
'Salvage the Bones' is prefaced with a quote from Outkast. Ward says hip hop is her generation's blues. Though compared to Faulkner and a great admirer of his work, Ward says he failed at writing black characters well.
Ward lived through Katrina, and was "dissatisfied with the way it had receded from public consciousness": http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/08/30/jesmyn-ward-on-salvage-the-bones/
Here are some reviews of Ward's book: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2011/08/in-salvage-the-bones-jesmyn-ward-tells-personal-story-of-hurricane-katrina.html
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First Posted: 11/16/11 08:04 PM ET Updated: 11/16/11 08:04 PM ET