The contenders for the 2013 National Book Award were pared down to a five nominees in each category today. Winners will be announced in New York City on November 20.
Fans of Jhumpa Lahiri will be excited to know that after missing out on yesterday’s Man Booker Prize, the Lowland author is still squarely in the running for the National Book Award. Of course, in order to attain the honor she’s going to have to beat out former Millions Top Ten member George Saunders and Millions favorite Rachel Kushner – as well as previous NBA winner Thomas Pynchon. On the nonfiction list, Millions readers should recognize George Packer’s The Unwinding, which Chris Barsanti called an “awe-inspiring X-Ray of the modern American soul.”
At the final awards ceremony on November 20, each finalist will receive $1,000, and each winner will receive an additional $10,000. Additional awards will also be goven to E.L. Doctorow and Maya Angelou, who will be receiving the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and the Literarian Award for Outstanding Contribution to the American Literary Community, respectively. The National Book Foundation has also announced that free e-books will be released containing excerpts from each of the works on the shortlist. (We’ll have more on that when it’s available.) Edit: The new e-books are now available for the Fiction Finalists, Nonfiction Finalists, Poetry Finalists, and Young People’s Literature Finalists. (E-books for other platforms are available here.)
Here’s a list of the finalists in all four categories with bonus links and excerpts where available:
Fiction:
- The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner (Millions review, Millions interview)
- The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri (excerpt)
- The Good Lord Bird by James McBride (excerpt)
- Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon (first page, excerpt)
- Tenth of December by George Saunders (Millions review)
Nonfiction:
- Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore (review)
- Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields by Wendy Lower
- The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer (Millions review)
- The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772–1832 by Alan Taylor (review)
- Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright (review, excerpt)
Poetry:
- Metaphysical Dog by Frank Bidart (review)
- Stay, Illusion by Lucie Brock-Broido (review)
- The Big Smoke by Adrian Matejka (excerpt)
- Black Aperture by Matt Rasmussen
- Incarnadine by Mary Szybist (review)
Young People’s Literature:
- The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp by Kathi Appelt (review)
- The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata (review)
- Far Far Away by Tom McNeal
- Picture Me Gone by Meg Rosoff
- Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang (review)
