Attention Publishers (Small & Large): The 2008 National Book Awards Publisher's Guidelines

Deadline for submission of the entry form is JUNE 16! 

National Book Awards Book-to-Film for the Summer

Our growing list of National Book Award books that have been adapted for film or video.

East of Eden
by John Steinbeck
1953 National Book Award Finalist in Fiction
The first film adaptation, starring James Dean and Julie Harris, was released in April 1955. A second adaptation as a television movie was released in February 1981, and starred Jane Seymour. 

The Shipping News
By E. Annie Proulx
1993 National Book Award Winner in Fiction
The film adaptation, staring Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench, Julianne Moore and Kevin Spacey, was released in January 2002 

Cold Mountain
by Charles Frazier
1997 National Book Award Winner in Fiction
The film adaptation, starring Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Renee Zellweger, was released in December 2003 

House of Sand and Fog
by Andre Dubus III
1999 National Book Award Finalist in Fiction
The film adaptation, starring Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley, was released in December 2003

More titles for your review at http://www.nationalbook.org/bookstomovies.html.  

Know of any National Book Award books-to-film we have missed? Email us at syoung@nationalbook.org.

The Book That Changed My Life Reading List

Over the years, the National Book Foundation has asked National Book Award Winners, Finalists, and Judges for the names of books that have shaped and influenced their reading and writing life. Here are some of the most recent responses.

Click on the links for further comments by these writers. 

• Laurie Halse Anderson, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson  
• Mark Bowden, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe  
• Don DeLillo, Dracula by  Bram Stoker 
• Andre Dubus III, The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake  
• Clarence Major, A Season in Hell by Arthur Rimbaud

To view a complete list, visit www.nationalbook.org/bookchanged.html.

The Book That Changed My Life Reading List for Young Adults and Teens

• Jacques Barzun, Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain  
• Kimberly Willis Holt, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
• Lois Lowry, The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
• Stephen King, Lord of the Flies by William Golding   
• Joyce Carol Oates, Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll  

Upcoming Summer Events 

Joshua Ferris, 2007 National Book Award Fiction Finalist, at NYC's Mixer Reading and Music Series

On June 18th, Joshua Ferris, 2007 National Book Award Fiction Finalist for Then We Came to the End will read at Mixer (http://www.myspace.com/mixernyc), a reading and music series in New York City, hosted by the National Book Foundation’s very own Rebecca Keith.  

Shortly after finding out that he was a National Book Award Finalist, our interviewer, Bret Anthony Johnston, asked Ferris "How long did you work on Then We Came to the End?"His response: "The first draft was started in the spring of 2002 and then wrestled to the ground and euthanized in the fall of 2003. I just didn’t know what the hell I was doing."

To read our entire interview with Joshua Ferris, visit: http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2007_f_ferris_interv.html.

Joshua Ferris has since won both the 2007 PEN/Hemingway Award and the annual Barnes & Noble Great New Writers Awards in Fiction.

He is working on his second novel.  

7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, June 18
Cake Shop
152 Ludlow Street (between Rivington and Stanton)
F, V to 2^nd Avenue, F, J, M to Delancey 

Admission is Free

The Wisest, Kindest Voice: A Celebration of the Work and Life of William Maxwell

Presented by The National Book Foundation and the Madison Square Park Conservancy 

with Christopher Carduff, Benjamin Cheever, Edward Hirsch, Daniel Menaker and Stewart O’Nan

July 31, 6:30pm
Madison Square Park, NYC

In his 40 years (1936-1975) as fiction editor of The New Yorker, William Maxwell worked with some of the most celebrated American writers of the era and was an accomplished writer of six novels (two were nominated for a National Book Award), many short stories, a memoir and a collection of essays. John Updike called Maxwell’s writing voice “one of the wisest and kindest in American fiction.”  Friends and admirers of Maxwell celebrate his centenary with a lively evening of discussion and reminiscence.

For more information, please visit www.nationalbook.org.

Photos: Benjamin Cheever by John Fortunato, Stewart O'Nan by Isolde Ohlbaum, Christopher Carduff by Emily Carduff, Edward Hirsch by Evin Thayer, Daniel Menaker by Chip Cooper

What's new on
nationalbook.org

Podcasts of interviews with Shalom Auslander moderated by the Foundation's executive director, Harold Augenbraum, and poet Paul Muldoon moderated by Edward Hirsch, as part of the Foundation's program partnership with the Brooklyn Academy of Music, are now available.

COMMUNITY

Tune into Harold Augenbraum's blog on The Future of Literary Culture. 

Author Residency

Week of July 21^st
Nina Crews
Kingsbridge Heights Community Center

NBA Dates

Notable Dates

June 18^th
Joshua Ferris
Mixer Reading and
Music Series at
Cake Shop
New York City 

July 31^st
The Wisest,
Kindest Voice:
A Celebration of
the Work and Life
of William Maxwell
Mad Sq Park, NYC

From the NBF Archives

In honor of Robert Lowell, we highlight his book, Life Studies, which won
the National Book Award for Poetry in 1960, by revisiting an essay from the National Book Awards archive. Written by former NBF executive director Neil Baldwin, the feature looks closely at the person behind the masterpiece.

And to read Lowell's acceptance speech, visit the 1960 Awards page.