Winners
Fiction - Winner
by Jaimy Gordon
Release Date: November 15, 2010
Horseman Tommy Hansel has a scheme to rescue his failing stable: He’ll ship four unknown but ready horses to Indian Mound Downs, run them in cheap claiming races at long odds, and then get out fast before anyone notices. The problem is, at this rundown riverfront half-mile racetrack in the Northern Panhandle, everybody notices—veteran groom Medicine Ed, Kidstuff the blacksmith, old lady “gyp” Deucey Gifford, stall superintendent Suitcase Smithers, eventually even the ruled-off “racetrack financier” Two-Tie and the ominous leading trainer, Joe Dale Bigg. But no one bothers to factor in Tommy Hansel’s go-fer girlfriend, Maggie Koderer. Like the beautiful, used-up, tragic horses she comes to love, Maggie has just enough heart to wire everyone’s flagging hopes back to the source of all luck.
Finalists
Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey
I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita
So Much for That by Lionel Shriver
Great House by Nicole Krauss
Nonfiction - Winner
by Patti Smith
Release Date: November 2, 2010
In Just Kids, Patti Smith’s first book of prose, the legendary American artist offers a never-before-seen glimpse of her remarkable relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the epochal days of New York City and the Chelsea Hotel in the late sixties and seventies. An honest and moving story of youth and friendship, Smith brings the same unique, lyrical quality to Just Kids as she has to the rest of her formidable body of work—from her influential 1975 album Horses to her visual art and poetry.
Finalists
Cultures of War by John W. Dower
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
Every Man in this Village is a Liar: An Education in War by Megan K. Stack
Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward by Justin Spring
Poetry - Winner
by Terrance Hayes
Release Date: March 30, 2010
In his fourth collection, Terrance Hayes investigates how we construct experience. With one foot firmly grounded in the everyday and the other hovering in the air, his poems braid dream and reality into a poetry that is both dark and buoyant. Cultural icons as diverse as Fela Kuti, Harriet Tubman, and Wallace Stevens appear with meditations on desire and history. We see Hayes testing the line between story and song in a series of stunning poems inspired by the Pecha Kucha, a Japanese presentation format. This innovative collection presents the light- headedness of a mind trying to pull against gravity and time. Fueled by an imagination that enlightens, delights, and ignites, Lighthead leaves us illuminated and scorched.
Finalists
By The Numbers by James Richardson
The Eternal City by Kathleen Graber
One with Others by C.D. Wright
Ignatz by Monica Youn
Young People's Literature - Winner
by Kathryn Erskine
Release Date: April 15, 2010
In Caitlin’s world, everything is black or white. Things are good or bad. Anything in between is confusing. That’s the stuff Caitlin’s older brother, Devon, has always explained. But now Devon’s dead and Dad is no help at all. Caitlin wants to get over it, but as an eleven-year-old girl with Asperger’s, she doesn’t know how. When she reads the definition of closure, she realizes that is what she needs. In her search for it, Caitlin discovers that not everything is black and white—the world is full of colors—messy and beautiful.
Finalists
Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers
Dark Water by Laura McNeal
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
Congratulations to all of the winners and the finalists of this year's National Book Awards!!!!!
I read Ship Breaker in the YA/Children's department. It was surprisingly good. I haven't read any of the other books on the list in any categories. Thanks for posting this.
ReplyDeleteHahaha WOW I have never heard of any of those books. And I call myself a YA lover *tsk tsk* Thank you for printing this list!
ReplyDelete