Established
in 1950, the National Book Award is an American literary prize given to writers
by writers and administered by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit
organization. The mission of the National Book Foundation and the National Book
Awards is to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience,
and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America.
A pantheon
of such writers as William Faulkner, Marianne Moore, Ralph Ellison, John
Cheever, Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth, Robert Lowell, Walker Percy, John
Updike, Katherine Anne Porter, Norman Mailer, Lillian Hellman, Elizabeth
Bishop, Saul Bellow, Donald Barthelme, Flannery O’Connor, Adrienne Rich, Thomas
Pynchon, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Alice Walker, Charles Johnson, E. Annie Proulx,
and Colum McCann have all won the Award.
Each year, the Foundation selects a total of twenty Judges, including five in each of the four Award categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature. Judges are published writers who are known to be doing great work in their genre or field, and in some cases, are past NBA Finalists or Winners. One of the five Judges on each panel is selected as the panel chair. This person acts as the voice of the panel and the liaison to the Foundation. The Foundation staff takes no part in the Judges’ deliberations, except to verify a submission’s eligibility.
The night
before the Awards, each Finalist receives a prize of $1,000, a medal, and a
citation from the panel at a private Medal Ceremony. Immediately following the
Medal Ceremony, all twenty Finalists read from their nominated books at the
Finalists Reading. The four Winners in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young
People’s Literature are announced the following evening at the National Book
Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner, where each Winner receives $10,000 and a
bronze sculpture.Once an author has been a National Book Award Finalist or
Winner, he or she becomes a permanent member of the National Book Foundation
family.
2012
FICTION FINALISTS:
Junot Díaz,
This Is How You Lose Her
Dave
Eggers, A Hologram for the King
Louise
Erdrich, The Round House
Ben
Fountain, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
Kevin
Powers, The Yellow Birds
(Judges in
the category of fiction in the year 2012 are: Stacey D’Erasmo, Dinaw Mengestu,
Lorrie Moore, Janet Peery)
2012
NON-FICTION FINALISTS:
Anne
Applebaum, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of
Eastern Europe, 1945-1956
Katherine
Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life,
Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
Robert A.
Caro, The Passage of Power: The Years of
Lyndon Johnson, Volume 4
Domingo
Martinez, The Boy Kings of Texas
Anthony
Shadid, House of Stone: A Memoir of Home,
Family, and a Lost Middle East
(Judges in
the category of fiction in the year 2012 are: Brad Gooch, Linda Gordon, Woody
Holton, Susan Orlean, Judith Shulevitz)
2012 POETRY
FINALISTS:
David
Ferry, Bewilderment: New Poems and
Translations
Cynthia
Huntington, Heavenly Bodies
Tim
Seibles, Fast Animal
Alan
Shapiro, Night of the Republic
Susan
Wheeler, Meme
(Judges in
the category of poetry in the year 2012 are: Laura Kasischke, Dana Levin,
Maurice Manning, Patrick Rosal, Tracy K. Smith)
2012 YOUNG
PEOPLE’S LITERATURE FINALISTS:
William
Alexander, Goblin Secrets
Carrie
Arcos, Out of Reach
Patricia
McCormick, Never Fall Down
Eliot
Schrefer, Endangered
Steve
Sheinkin, Bomb: The Race to Build—and
Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon
(Judges in
the category of young people’s literature in the year 2012 are: Susan Cooper,
Daniel Ehrenhaft, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Gary D. Schmidt, Marly Youmans)
by Sylwia Chlebowska
source:
