National Book Awards - 2009
FICTION
Winner:
Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin (Random House)
> Interview
> Appreciations on Best of National Book Awards Fiction Blog
Finalists:
Bonnie Jo Campbell, American Salvage (Wayne State University Press)
- Interview >
- “Contenders” Fiction Finalists Exhibition Page >Daniyal Mueenuddin, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (W. W. Norton & Co.)
- “Contenders” Fiction Finalists Exhibition Page >Jayne Anne Phillips, Lark and Termite (Alfred A. Knopf)
- Interview >
- “Contenders” Fiction Finalists Exhibition Page >Marcel Theroux, Far North (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
- Interview >
- “Contenders” Fiction Finalists Exhibition Page >
FICTION JUDGES:
Alan Cheuse, Junot Díaz, Jennifer Egan, Charles Johnson, Lydia Millet
NONFICTION
Winner:
T. J. Stiles, The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (Alfred A. Knopf)
> Interview
Finalists:
David M. Carroll, Following the Water: A Hydromancer's Notebook (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
- Interview >Sean B. Carroll, Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
- Interview >Greg Grandin, Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City
(Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt)
- Interview >Adrienne Mayor, The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy
(Princeton University Press)
- Interview >
NONFICTION JUDGES:
David Blight, Amanda Foreman, Steve Olson, Camille Paglia, John Phillip Santos
POETRY
Winner:
Keith Waldrop, Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy (University of California Press)
> Interview
> NBA Poetry Blog Essay and Archival Material for Waldrop
Finalists:
Rae Armantrout, Versed (Wesleyan University Press)
- Interview >Ann Lauterbach, Or to Begin Again (Penguin Books)
- Interview >
Carl Phillips, Speak Low (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
- Interview >Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, Open Interval (University of Pittsburgh Press)
- Interview >
POETRY JUDGES:
Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, A. Van Jordan, Cole Swensen, Kevin Young
YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE
Winner:
Phillip Hoose, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
> Interview
Watch Speech
Finalists:
Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith (Henry Holt)
- Interview >David Small, Stitches (W. W. Norton & Co.)
- Interview >Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic)
- Interview >Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped (HarperTeen/HarperCollins)
YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE JUDGES:
Kathi Appelt, Coe Booth, Carolyn Coman, Nancy Werlin, Gene Luen Yang
2009 National Book Awards Dinner Master of Ceremonies
Andy Borowitz's Opening Monologue
(contains adult language)