Presenter of the National Book Awards

NBF Announces 2010 5 Under 35

Brooklyn Book Festival, 2010
October 5, 2010 Press Release
    
5 UNDER 35

FIFTH ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF YOUNG FICTION WRITERS
SELECTED BY NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNERS AND FINALISTS

National Book Foundation also looks back on "25 Under 35,"
all the honorees for the past five years.

Rosanne Cash to Host
Rob Sheffield to DJ

5Under35logo2010 marks the fifth year of the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 selections, recognizing five young fiction writers chosen by National Book Award Winners and Finalists. Last year's reading and party at powerHouse Arena in DUMBO, Brooklyn prompted The Huffington Post to publish a piece called "How to Throw a Party for Books: The NBA's 5 Under 35 Event." This year's celebration will again be held at powerHouse Arena at the start of National Book Awards Week on Monday, November 15. The event will be hosted by musician and author Rosanne Cash, with music journalist Rob Sheffield as DJ.

Leslie Shipman, Director of Programs at the National Book Foundation, comments, "In the five years of 5 Under 35, we've been thrilled to see many of our honorees go on to receive great acclaim. We're delighted that 5 Under 35 provides us with an opportunity to recognize these young writers early in their careers, with the help of past National Book Award Winners and Finalists."

5 under 35 books 2010

The 2010 5 Under 35 Honorees are:

  • Sarah Braunstein, The Sweet Relief of Missing Children (W.W. Norton & Co., 2011)
    Selected by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, National Book Award Fiction Finalist for     Madeleine Is Sleeping, 2004

  • Grace Krilanovich, The Orange Eats Creeps (Two Dollar Radio, 2010)
    Selected by Scott Spencer, Fiction Finalist for A Ship Made of Paper, 2003; Fiction Finalist for Endless Love, 1980 and 1981

  • Téa Obreht, The Tiger's Wife (Random House, 2011)
    Selected by Colum McCann, Fiction Winner for Let the Great World Spin, 2009

  • Tiphanie Yanique, How to Escape from a Leper Colony (Graywolf, 2010)
    Selected by Jayne Anne Phillips, Fiction Finalist for Lark and Termite, 2009

  • Paul Yoon, Once the Shore (Sarabande, 2009)
    Selected by Kate Walbert, Fiction Finalist for Our Kind, 2004

(Click on the author's name to see a biography.)


With its fifth year of 5 Under 35 selections, the National Book Foundation now honors 25 writers under 35, including Ceridwen Dovey, Samantha Hunt, Bret Anthony Johnston, Nam Le, Dinaw Mengestu, ZZ Packer, Anya Ulinich, Josh Weil, and Charles Yu, selected by past National Book Award Winners and Finalists such as Jennifer Egan, Jonathan Franzen, Mary Gaitskill, Charles Johnson, and Christine Schutt.

The 2010 list of books reflects a range of publishers from Two Dollar Radio to Random House. Among the 2010 5 Under 35 honorees' early accomplishments, Tiphanie Yanique is a 2010 Rona Jaffe Foundation Award Winner, an award which Sarah Braunstein won in 2007; Grace Krilanovich was a finalist for the Starcherone Prize; Paul Yoon's Once the Shore was a New York Times Notable Book; and Téa Obreht was named one of The New Yorker's 2010 "20 Under 40." 

powerhouse_2009At this year's 5 Under 35 party, the young writers will be introduced by the National Book Award Winners and Finalists who selected them and will each give a brief reading. Author Amanda Stern, host of the first 5 Under 35 event in 2006, will interview the honorees and Winners and Finalists during the party. Party guests will be invited to pose for portraits by The Photo Booth Party. Food will again be provided by the Red Hook Food Vendors and wine by Brooklyn Oenology.

For more information on this year's 5 Under 35 honorees and past 5 Under 35 celebrations, please visit http://www.nationalbook.org/5under35.html.

This event is by invitation only. Press interested in attending should contact Sherrie Young at syoung@nationalbook.org.

 

The Mission of the National Book Foundation is to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America.

About the National Book Awards
The nation's most prestigious literary prize, the National Book Award has a stellar record of identifying and rewarding quality writing. In 1950, William Carlos Williams was the first winner in Poetry, the following year William Faulkner was honored in Fiction, and so on through the years. Many previous Winners of a National Book Award are now firmly established in the canon of American literature. On November 17th, the National Book Awards will be presented in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature.