| Maxine
Hong Kingston and Barney Rosset to Receive Foundation's
Lifetime Achievement Awards |
|
The
National Book Foundation announced today that
Maxine
Hong Kingston would receive its 2008
Medal for Distinguished Contribution to
American Letters and
Barney
Rosset the 2008
Literarian Award for Outstanding Service
to the Literary Community.
Both
will be presented at the 2008 National
Book Awards ceremony on Wednesday, November
19th. The Foundation also announced that writer
and actor Eric
Bogosian will host this year's
National
Book Award Ceremony and Dinner.
Now
in its 19th year, the recipient of the Medal
for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
is a person who has enriched our literary heritage
over a life of service, or a corpus of work.
Past recipients include Norman
Mailer, John
Updike, Toni
Morrison, Arthur
Miller, Judy
Blume, David
McCullough, Ray
Bradbury and Joan
Didion. For more about these and other
past honorees, please visit the Foundation's
website at http://www.nationalbook.org/amerletters.html.
The
Literarian Award for Outstanding Service
to the Literary Community, created
in 2005, honors an individual whose life
and work exemplify the goals of the National
Book Foundation to expand the audience for literature
and enhance the cultural value of literature
in America. Past recipients include Lawrence
Ferlinghetti and Terry
Gross. For more information about past
honorees and to view their acceptance speeches,
visit the Foundation's website at http://www.nationalbook.org/literarian.html.
Photos: Maxine
Hong Kingston © Thomas Victor, 1979.
|
| Mark
Your Calendar: 5 Under 35 for 2008 to
be Announced on September 24th |
|
On
September 24th the Foundation will
announce this year's 5 Under 35 fiction selections.
Now in its third year, 5 Under 35
highlights the work of the next generation of
fiction writers by asking five previous National
Book Awards Fiction Winners and Finalists to each
select one fiction writer under the age of 35
whose work they find particularly promising and
exciting.
The selected writers will
be fêted at an invitation-only party and
reading on November 17th, which kicks off National
Book Awards Week 2008.
For a list of the 2006
and 2007
5 Under 35 fiction writers and the National Book
Award authors who selected them, as well as scenes
from the invitation-only parties, click on www.nationalbook.org/5under35.
|
| Mark
Your Calendar: Author
Scott Turow to Announce National
Book Award Finalists on October 15th |
|
On
October 15th, the eagerly-awaited announcement
of the twenty Finalists
for the 2008 National Book Awards will
be made from the stage of the Steppenwolf
Theater in Chicago by author Scott
Turow. The announcement will be transmitted
by videolink and be available at www.nationalbook.org
at 12 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Bookstores,
libraries and bloggers are invited to link to
the Foundation's website.
If
you are not a registered eNewsletter recipient
and would like to receive a list of the twenty
Finalists for the 2008 National Book Awards
and a hot link to Turow’s video announcement,
please send an email to nationalbook@nationalbook.org
and state in the subject line "Email Finalists
on October 15th."
Turow
picture © Greg Martin.
|
| Don't
Have Time to Check Your Email for the Finalists
on October 15th? |
|
Follow
the Foundation on Twitter.
The
NBF will be sending tweets about author events,
awards updates, and details about National Book
Awards Week. Find out who the 2008 Finalists
are in real-time, as they are announced, starting
at noon
on October 15th.
Subscribe
to our feed at http://twitter.com/nationalbook.
Do
you have suggestions of who we should be following?
Tweet us to let us know or email Meredith Andrews at
nationalbook@nationalbook.org.
|
| Sunday,
Sept. 14th: NBF Participates in Brooklyn
Book Festival, Booth # 36 |
|
The
Foundation
is thrilled to participate in the third annual
Brooklyn Book Festival, to be held in Downtown
Brooklyn on Sunday, September 14th from 10:00
a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
We
look forward to meeting and speaking to readers,
writers, librarians, booksellers, teachers,
or anyone curious about the National Book Foundation's
programs and the National Book Awards. Shelf-talkers,
New York City Literary Hotspots maps, and National
Book Award Winner and Finalist books
will be available at our booth. Librarians and
bookstores will also be able to order medallion
stickers for their collections.
The
festival will present National Book Award authors
Dorothy
Allison, Joan
Didion, Jonathan
Franzen, Jessica
Hagedorn, Jacqueline
Woodson and Kevin
Young. Other authors scheduled to be
appear are Jimmy
Breslin, Susan
Choi, Kathryn
Harrison, Philip Lopate, Terry
McMillan, Richard
Price and Esmeralda
Santiago. For more information on the
Brooklyn Book Festival visit http://www.brooklynbookfestival.org/.
|
|
| New
Video on nationalbook.org |
|
Now
Available
Complete
Video Coverage of The Wisest, Kindest Voice:
The Work and Life of William Maxwell: Legendary
New Yorker Fiction Editor, Novelist, Short
Story Writer and Essayist
On
July 31st, the National Book Foundation, along
with admirers and friends Christopher
Carduff, Benjamin
Cheever, Edward
Hirsch, Daniel
Menaker and Stewart
O’Nan, commemorated the centennial
of William Maxwell's birth and the eighth anniversary
of his death as part of New Mad Square Reads
series at Madison Square
Park.
To
view a lively discussion and how Maxwell's
wisdom affected each of the authors' writing
life, click on www.nationalbook.org.
|
| NATIONAL
BOOK AWARD DATES
|
|
September
10th, Recipients for the Medal for
Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
and the Literarian Award, location and time
of the National
Book Awards Finalists announcement and
the Master
of Ceremonies for the 2008 National
Book Awards Dinner and Ceremony, at www.nationalbook.org,
10:00 a.m.
September
24th, Announcement of 5 Under 35
next generation of fiction writers, New York
City
October
15th, Announcement of this year's
National Book Award Finalists, Chicago
November
17th, National Book Awards Week
Begins with 5 Under 35, a celebration of
the next generation of fiction writers
November
18th, National Book Awards Teen
Press Conference, New York City
November
18th, National Book Awards Finalist
Reading, New York City
November
19th, 59th National Book Awards
Ceremony and Dinner, New York City
|
|
