National Book Awards - 2008
FICTION
WINNER:
Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country (Modern Library)
> Interview
> Watch Speech
> Appreciations on Best of National Book Awards Fiction Blog
Finalists:
Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project (Riverhead)
- Interview >
- “Contenders” Fiction Finalists Exhibition Page >Rachel Kushner, Telex from Cuba (Scribner)
- Interview >
- “Contenders” Fiction Finalists Exhibition Page >Marilynne Robinson, Home (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
- Interview >
- “Contenders” Fiction Finalists Exhibition Page >Salvatore Scibona, The End (Graywolf Press)
- Interview >
- “Contenders” Fiction Finalists Exhibition Page >
Fiction judges:
Gail Godwin (chair), Rebecca Goldstein,
Elinor Lipman, Reginald McKnight, Jess Walter.
NONFICTION
WINNER:
Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (W.W. Norton & Company)
> Interview
> Watch Speech
Finalists:
Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (Alfred A. Knopf)
- Interview >Jane Mayer, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals (Doubleday)
- Interview >Jim Sheeler, Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives (The Penguin Press)
- Interview >Joan Wickersham, The Suicide Index: Putting My Father’s Death in Order (Harcourt)
- Interview >
Nonfiction judges:
Marie Arana (chair), Farah Jasmine Griffin, Russell Jacoby, Megan Marshall, Kevin Starr.
POETRY
WINNER:
Mark Doty, Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems (HarperCollins)
> Interview
> NBA Poetry Blog Essay and Archival Material for Doty
> Watch Speech
Finalists:
Frank Bidart, Watching the Spring Festival (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
- Interview >Reginald Gibbons, Creatures of a Day (Louisiana State University Press)
- Interview >Richard Howard, Without Saying (Turtle Point Press)
- Interview >Patricia Smith, Blood Dazzler (Coffee House Press)
- Interview >
Poetry Judges:
Robert Pinsky (chair), Mary Jo Bang, Kimiko Hahn, Tony Hoagland, Marilyn Nelson.
YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE
WINNER:
Judy Blundell, What I Saw and How I Lied (Scholastic)
> Interview
> Watch Speech
Finalists:
Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains (Simon & Schuster)
Kathi Appelt, The Underneath (Atheneum)
- Interview >E. Lockhart, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (Hyperion)
- Interview >Tim Tharp, The Spectacular Now (Alfred A. Knopf)
- Interview >
Young People’s Literature Judges:
Daniel Handler (chair), Holly Black, Angela Johnson, Carolyn Mackler, Cynthia Voigt.
2008 National Book Awards Finalist Announcement
The twenty Finalists
for the 2008 National Book Award were announced on
October 15 by author
Scott Turow from the stage of
the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago