Bob Shacochis
2002 Fiction Panel Chair

L to R: Bob Shacochis, Fiction Panel Chair; Han Nolan, Young People's Literature Panel Chair; Dave Smith, Poetry Panel Chair; Christopher Merrill, Nonfiction Panel Chair. Photo credit: Robin Platzer/Twin Images.

"The ruthless intimacy of literature" --there's nothing I can say that's better than that. Thank you, Philip Roth for the influence you've had on so many generations of writers.

Before I announce the winner, I'd like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Neil Baldwin, his hardworking staff at the National Book Foundation, and their fierce dedication to preserving the dignity, honor, and tradition of the National Book Awards. Thank you, Neil, and the Foundation staff. Your steadfast service to American culture and literature is not to be underestimated.

As for tradition, it's been customary in the past for the Fiction Award to end the evening. Tonight, Fiction goes first. I don't know why, but I suspect this is because the Judges Panel, as you well know, robbed the cradle this year. And I don't think our Finalists are allowed to stay up past their bedtime.

I want to thank my fellow judges who reflect the diversity and scope of the Book Foundation's mandate. David Wong Louie is from St. Louis. Jacquelyn Mitchard is from Wisconsin; I'm from Florida and New Mexico. Adrienne Brodeur` and Jay McInerney are from New York. Guess what? We have never met before today. And a casual glance our way might imply we had little in common, but that would not be true. Superficially, we shared the intense but exquisite challenge of reading, contemplating, and debating almost 300 books in four months. Our enterprise was robust. A judges' panel anguishes over its nominations, and sometimes bleeds, and I thank them wholeheartedly for the courage and the thoroughness of their engagement in the process. They proved themselves serious, devoted citizens of the literary village. More important, we have in common an unwavering passion for the word, for the brilliance of an articulated imagination; the seduction of heart and mind by a singular, fearless voice. And voice, ultimately, is literature. The exploration of humanity through language. Voice in its orbit through thematic gravity most vibrantly carries the endless wonder of a unique self; a living but invisible soul-- that's the writer's.

Finally, we share, I think, a belief in what is genuinely American; that in America the creative elite had burst through all contrivances of class and esthetic monopoly and felt unrestrained by the notions of high, middle and low. That great American literature is, in fact, all three at once; and therefore, none of the above, and liberated. Liberated to evolve, liberated to follow many, many paths to excellence. That's the insight I can provide into the judges and the process.

What you need to know about our five Finalists and their books is that each, and each in its own manner is extraordinary. Indeed, the year has produced an astonishingly rich crop of new American voices. As we began to narrow our list, we noticed a phenomenon impossible to predict at the beginning of our work, and wholly unexpected by the end of it. More than anything else in American fiction in 2002, this was the year of the thunderclap debut. I would very much like to salute the whole crowd of miracle babies. At least a dozen by my count, for they are all worthy. Time will not permit it, but I will say these debuts of spectacular second novels fill and possess the literary horizon like an artillery barrage, and secure the promise of a new generation of brilliant writers of a new American century.

And the Finalists here tonight, Mark Costello, Julia Glass, Adam Haslett, Martha McPhee, and Brad Watson, are in the forefront of that generation. The Winner of the National Book Award for fiction in 2002 is one such debut. A novel of sweeping, symphonic grace that reminds us as we can never be reminded enough, that in fiction the heart in all its brokenness, and in all its mending, reigns supreme and we would barely know it otherwise. The Winner is Three Junes by Julia Glass. Read Julia Glass' acceptance speech.