THE 20 FINALISTS FOR THE
2010 NBAS TO BE ANNOUNCED AT
THE FLANNERY O'CONNOR CHILDHOOD HOME
IN SAVANNAH, GEORGIA

ANNOUNCEMENT WILL TAKE PLACE ON OCTOBER 13, 2010

New York, NY (June 16, 2010) - The 20 Finalists in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature for the 2010 National Book Awards will be announced for the first time at the Flannery O'Connor Childhood Home in Savannah, Georgia on October 13, 2010.

The Flannery O'Connor Childhood Home was selected from among more than 75 venue suggestions for the 2010 National Book Award Finalists Announcement from readers of the National Book Foundation's monthly eNewsletter. Though many terrific suggestions were offered, the Flannery O'Connor Childhood Home rose above the rest.

The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1972 and was also voted the Best of the National Book Awards Fiction last fall. The Foundation's Best of the National Book Awards Fiction campaign began in July, 2009 and continued through the summer with a book-a-day blog featuring all 77 Fiction Winners of the last 60 years. We then held a public vote, narrowing down the 77 to a short list of 6, and finally, we announced that O’Connor’s The Complete Stories had been named the Best of the National Book Awards Fiction at the 2009 National Book Awards Ceremony in New York City. Harold Augenbraum, the Executive Director of the Foundation, stated, “We are thrilled to announce the Finalists for the 2010 National Book Awards at the home of one of the great American writers of the past half-century, whose work resonates with a broad public across the United States and around the world.”

According to an article posted on SavannahNow.com (http://savannahnow.com/node/910296/print), the Foundation's Best of the National Book Awards Fiction campaign contributed to an increase in the number of visitors to the Home in 2009. The Home has recently been restored to the condition it was in when the O’Connor family lived there, from 1925 to 1938. “The emotional intensity and shocking immediacy of O’Connor’s fiction has influenced countless American writers, so it seems especially fitting that we have the honor of hosting this extraordinary event,” said Bill Dawers, President of the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home. To learn more about the Home, visit www.flanneryoconnorhome.org.

Each year in mid-October, the twenty Finalists for the National Book Award in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature are announced. Over the years, the announcement has been made by a variety of acclaimed authors at institutions and venues that symbolize literary endeavor: Walter Mosley on the steps of the New York Public Library in New York City; Garrison Keillor at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota; John Grisham at William Faulkner's home in Oxford, Mississippi; Lawrence Ferlinghetti at City Lights Books in San Francisco, California; Camille Paglia at The Library Company of Philadelphia; and Scott Turow at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago.

Other suggestions for the 2010 Finalists announcement:

(If we didn't pick your choice, don't worry. We'll be keeping this list to utilize for other events and future announcements.)

KEY:
Blue dots = Locations we’ve visited before
Green dots = Locations suggested by the public.

View NBA Finalist Announcement Locations (Past) in a larger map

List of Suggested Locations (alpha by state):

Alabama

• Birmingham Jail or the Civil Rights Museum
• Monroeville, County Courthouse
• Tuscumbia, Helen Keller's birth home

California

• Danville, Eugene O'Neill's Home
• Los Angeles Public Library
• Monterey, Robinson Jeffers Home/Library
• Pasadena, Vroman's Bookstore
• San Diego
• San Francisco, Gates of Chinatown
• Salinas, National Steinbeck Center

Colorado

• Denver, Poet Jake Adam York at Lighthouse Writers
• Denver, The Tattered Cover Bookstore

Connecticut

• Madison, RJ Julia Bookstore
• Hartford, Mark Twain House

Florida

• Coral Gables
• Cross Creek, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Home
• Key West, Hemingway Hang out
• Key West
• Key West, Cormac McCarthy at Captain Tony's Bar
• Delray Beach

Georgia

• Atlanta
• Atlanta, Margaret Mitchell's House
• Milledgeville, Andalusia, Flannery O'Connor's Farm
• Savannah, Flannery O'Connor's Childhoood Home

Illinois

• Chicago
• Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre

Indiana

• Indianapolis, Big Hat Books

Kansas

• Wichita, Watermark Books

Maryland

• Rockville
• Baltimore, Poe House and Museum
• Baltimore, Edgar Allan Poe's Grave

Massachusetts

• Amherst, Emily Dickinson's Home
• Boston Athenaeum
• Boston Latin School
• Boston Public Library
• Concord

Michigan

• Detroit

Mississippi

• Jackson, Eudora Welty's home
• Oxford, Square Books

Missouri

• Kansas City Public Library
• Kansas City Headquarters
• Hannibal
• St. Louis Public Library
• St. Louis, Left Bank Books

New York

• Brooklyn Academy of Music
• Far Rockaway, Queens Library
• Tarrytown, Sunnyside Estate, Washington Irving's home
• New York City, by John Peter Zenger's grave.  He was interred in lower Manhattan in Trinity Church's cemetery. 
• New York City, announce each category from a different indie bookstore.

North Carolina

• Durham, WUNC (Public Radio)
• Raleigh, Wake County Public Library

Ohio

• Lucas, Malabar Farm State Park
• Cleveland, East 86th Street, house of where Langston Hughes grew up
• Columbus Metropolitan Library
• Columbus, Thurber House

Oregon

• Portland, The Benson Hotel
• Portland, Frank Mansion at Lewis and Clark College
• Portland, Oregon Convention Center
• Portland, Powell's Bookstore
• Reedsport Public Library

Pennsylvania

• Darby Public Library
• Philadelphia

Tennessee

• Nashville Public Library

Texas

• Houston Public Library System
• El Paso

Vermont

• St. Johnsbury Athenaeum
• Montpelier, Vermont College of Fine Arts (in honor of Norma Fox Mazer)

Virginia

• Charlottesville, Edgar Allan Poe's Dorm Room
• Charlottesville, Thomas Jefferson, Monticello
• Woodbridge, Steps of an average American public library, such as the Potomac Library

Washington

• Seattle, San Francisco, Elliot Bay Bookstore
• Seattle, Richard Hugo House or Town Hall or, Benaroya Hall
• Seattle Public Library

Washington, D.C.

• The Great Hall of the Folger Library
• Historic Sixth Street Synagogue
• Library of Congress Center for the Book
• Lincoln Memorial
• Library of Congress
• The Reading Room of the Library of Congress
• National Gallery
• Politics & Prose Bookstore
• Supreme Court
  

Locations of Prior Announcements and Writers who have made the Announcements:

• 2003 - Steps of the New York Public Library - announced by Walter Mosley
• 2004 - Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota - announced by Garrison Keillor
• 2005 - William Faulkner's home in Oxford, Mississippi - announced by John Grisham
• 2006 - City Lights Book Shop in San Francisco, California - announced by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
• 2007 - The Library Company of Philadelphia - announced by Camille Paglia
• 2008 - Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago - announced by Scott Turow
• 2009 - eblast and via www.nationalbook.org