With the awarding of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award last week, the 2008/2009 literary award season is now over, which gives us the opportunity to update our list of prizewinners.
Though literary prizes are arbitrary in many ways, our prizewinners post is compiled in the same spirit that one might tally up batting titles and MVPs to determine if a baseball player should be considered for the Hall of Fame. These awards nudge an author towards the "canon" and secure them places on literature class reading lists for decades to come.
Most notably, after being named to the IMPAC shortlist,
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by
Junot Díaz has joined the ranks of the most celebrated novels of the last 15 years, making it, along with the other books near the top of the list, something of a modern classic.
Here is our methodology:
I wanted to include both American books and British books, as well as the English-language books from other countries that are eligible to win some of these awards. I started with the National Book Award and the Pulitzer from the American side and the Booker and Costa from the British side. Because I wanted the British books to "compete" with the American books, I also looked at a couple of awards that recognize books from both sides of the ocean, the National Book Critics Circle Awards and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. The IMPAC is probably the weakest of all these, but since it is both more international and more populist than the other awards, I thought it added something. The glaring omission is the PEN/Faulkner, but it would have skewed everything too much in favor of the American books, so I left it out.
I looked at these six awards from 1995 to the present, awarding three points for winning an award and two points for an appearance on a shortlist or as a finalist. Here's the key that goes with the list: B=Booker Prize, C=National Book Critics Circle Award, I=International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, N=National Book Award, P=Pulitzer Prize, W=Costa Book Award [formerly the Whitbread] bold=winner, red=New to the list or moved up* the list since last year's "Prizewinners" post
*Note that the IMPAC considers books a year after the other awards do, and so this year's IMPAC shortlist nods added to point totals from last year in the case of three books.
11, 2003,
The Known World by Edward P. Jones - C, I, N, P
9, 2001,
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen - C, I, N, P
8, 1997,
Underworld by Don DeLillo - C, I, N, P
8, 2007,
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by
Junot Díaz -
C,
P, I
7, 2005,
The March by
E.L. Doctorow -
C, N, P
7, 2004,
Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst - B, C, W
7, 2002,
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - I, N, P
7, 2001,
Atonement by Ian McEwan - B, C, W
7, 1998,
The Hours by Michael Cunningham - C, I, P
7, 1997,
Last Orders by Graham Swift - B, I, W
7, 1997,
Quarantine by Jim Crace - B, I, W
6, 2005,
The Inheritance of Loss by
Kiran Desai -
B,
C
6, 2004,
Gilead by Marilynn Robinson - C, P
5, 2008,
The Secret Scripture by
Sebastian Barry - B,
W
5, 2008,
Olive Kitteridge by
Elizabeth Strout - C,
P
5, 2007,
Tree of Smoke by
Denis Johnson -
N, P
5, 2006,
The Road by
Cormac McCarthy - C,
P
5, 2006,
The Echo Maker by
Richard Powers -
N, P
5, 2005,
Europe Central by
William T. Vollmann - C,
N
5, 2005,
The Accidental by
Ali Smith - B,
W
5, 2004,
The Master by
Colm Toibin - B,
I
5, 2003,
The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard - I, N
5, 2001,
True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey - B, I
5, 2000,
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon - C, P
5, 2000,
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood - B, I
5, 1999,
Waiting by Ha Jin - N, P
5, 1999,
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee - B, C
5, 1999,
Being Dead by Jim Crace - C, W
5, 1998,
Charming Billy by Alice McDermott - I, N
5, 1997,
American Pastoral by Philip Roth - C, P
5, 1996,
Every Man for Himself by Beryl Bainbridge - B, W
5, 1996,
Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser - N, P
5, 1995,
The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie - B, W
5, 1995,
The Ghost Road by Pat Barker - B, W
5, 1995,
Independence Day by Richard Ford - C, P
5, 1995,
Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth - N, P
4, 2008,
Home by
Marilynn Robinson - C, N
4, 2008,
The Lazarus Project by
Aleksandar Hemon - C, N
4, 2007,
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by
Mohsin Hamid - B, I
4, 2007,
Animal's People by
Indra Sinha - B, I
4, 2005,
Veronica by
Mary Gaitskill - C, N
4, 2005,
Arthur and George by
Julian Barnes - B, I
4, 2005,
A Long, Long Way by
Sebastian Barry - B, I
4, 2005,
Never Let Me Go by
Kazuo Ishiguro - B, C
4, 2005,
Shalimar the Clown by
Salman Rushdie - I, W
4, 2004,
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - B, C
4, 2003,
Brick Lane by Monica Ali - B, C
4, 2003,
Bitter Fruit by Achmat Dangor - B, I
4, 2003,
The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut - B, I
4, 2003,
Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins - N, P
4, 2002,
Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry - B, I
4, 2002,
The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor - B, W
4, 2001,
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry - B, I
4, 2001,
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett - I, N
4, 2001,
John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead - N, P
4, 2001,
Oxygen by Andrew Miller - B, W
4, 2000,
The Keepers of Truth by Michael Collins - B, I
4, 2000,
When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro - B, W
4, 2000,
Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates - N, P
4, 1999,
Our Fathers by Andrew O'Hagan - B, I
4, 1999,
Headlong by Michael Frayn - B, W
4, 1999,
The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin - B, I
4, 1997,
Autobiography of My Mother by Jamaica Kincaid - C, I
4, 1997,
Grace Notes by Bernard MacLaverty - B, W
4, 1997,
Enduring Love by Ian McEwan - I, W
4, 1997,
The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick - I, N
4, 1996,
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood - B, I
4, 1995,
In Every Face I Meet by Justin Cartwright - B, W
Ta-Nehisi Coates has been a widely read journalist for years, but Coates’s 2014 piece for The Atlantic, “The Case for Reparations” was a masterpiece of longform journalism that introduced him to many new readers. In it, he portrayed the idea of reparations for slavery, so often painted as a “fringe” solution, as not just plausible but utterly compelling and necessary. Riding the wave of that piece and an American public, in the wake of Ferguson, Baltimore and elsewhere, newly alert to the state of race relations in America, Coates’s publisher Spiegel & Grau pushed up the release date for Between the World and Me. In true Coates form, the book is parts history, polemic, journalism, and memoir, all in the form of an open letter to his teenaged son. Between the World and Me was recently longlisted for the National Book Award and it sits atop our Top Ten list. Our own Sonya Chung wrote an essay about the sometimes tone deaf reaction to the bestseller. Coates’s first book, a memoir called The Beautiful Struggle, was released in 2008.
Ben Lerner is the lone novelist to be honored by the Macarthur Foundation this year (though he is also an accomplished poet and critic). He is best known for his decidedly metafictional novels, featuring protagonists that are mirrors of the author. Of his 2014 novel 10:04, we wrote:
Are they geniuses or are they just the latest “cool” writers? Time will tell.
Ben Lerner deserves it for being a good writer and let’s face it, Coates (as much as I think he’s ridiculous sometimes) deserves it. Good for them.
Of course, the stuff about art and the art world is literally the worst parts of Ben Lerner. Less stuff about “the chasm between a life lived and a thing made” and more stuff about writers turning into octopuses.
Whatever happened to that lady who won for “Alligatorland?” Is she still a genius?
Anyone with 625K is a genius. Don’t you know that by now? This is America.
Josef — do you mean “Swamplandia”? It took me some time to remember the real name of the book, so I guess that speaks volumes.
Does that Pynchon guy still write?
Yeah, Swamplandia. Actually, my comment was possibly the meanest thing I’ve ever said on this website.
Sorry for bringing down the vibe, everyone :(
That said, I’m surprised Roxanne Gay never won a Genius Award. That seems like it would have been a shoe-in. She may have missed her moment though.
As far as Coates goes… I can’t really say anything because I haven’t read the book. Every time I go to click “Buy” I start thinking about how worked up the NYTimes people got over it, and then, I just can’t do it. I can’t click “Buy.” It seems like to do so would be a giant waste of my time. I say to myself, “could anything that gets David Brooks that upset be of actual importance?” And then I look at the people who came running to attack David Brooks, and it’s just too much.
Josef you are not wrong – I would also think that Gay would win it, not because she’s a good writer but because she’s on the correct side politically (and very far on that side). I can’t imagine the MacArthur Grant (or any major award) going to a conservative, actually. It’s just not done.
Don’t know the work of the playwright or the poet but Coates and Lerner are horrible choices. The one is already a #1 NY Times Best Seller so I would hope the committee selecting these things would have awarded the genius grant to someone who actually needed the money (also, Coates is a hypocrite and viciously hate-filled racist who screams like a lunatic in a way that if the races were reversed and some purported “public intellectual” was widely and haphazardly degrading “black people” the way Coates says “white people,” they would never work again). Lerner is a gimmicky bastard whose poetic chops are not unsubstantial but to call him a “novelist” is a joke and a affront to the form, in reality he isn’t much better than Lena Dunham, Sheila Heti, Miranda July or the other wave of entitled millennial navel gazers. But hey, maybe Voigt and Miranda are legitimate geniuses so I’m glad to have the opportunity to look into their work when I have time. It’s hard for any organization, even the MacArthur grants, to bat a thousand. Over half a million dollars to Coates who doesn’t need it and Lerner’s smarmy behind is a disgrace though.
There’s a very sapient saying we have in German: Those who have, will be given. The same applies to our literary awards and grants here in Switzerland: a stipend for those who already earn handily from their publishers.
[On a surrealistically related note: the disgraced, ex-VW CEO might be getting a cool 24millions as a farewell tip…]
@Sean H
“a hypocrite and viciously hate-filled racist”
Tell us how you really feel!
The opprobrium being lobbed about in this thread is uncalled for. Yes, it’s a stupid name for a big prize. Bunch of real critical thinkers up in here.
Critical thinking is why we have a desire to turn back upon it’s perpetrators this ray of contempt for the American reading public.
I am in the midst of reading Coates now. It seems he has hit a nerve, at least for Sean H., which is fine. It is amazing how many writers he dissed within a single post. I wonder if he writes and, if he does, is he better than Lena Dunham and co.
I do write but I’m also a professor and, honestly, the average college upperclassmen English major at a halfway decent school has more writing ability than Dunham, Heti or July. They’re literally terrible, part of the “famous for no reason” cult that has taken over America. I think Coates’ ideology is absolutely divisive, noxious and deluded but the guy has legitimate journalistic chops and even though I wholeheartedly disagree with him, his ability to put together words and images is not at all dismissible. And Lerner has to get his head out of this quasi-memoir phase of his career but his poetry is no joke. He’s a real talent, he just needs to do what he does best and be a poet instead of thinking he’s some sort of prose writer. Young notoriety, as David Foster Wallace has talked about, is often the worst thing for a writer.
I really like Ben Lerner’s books of poetry, and I was happy for him when I heard that he got the big cash prize. But I also suspect that he would not have been anywhere near that list of winners if he had not written two books of prose. His poetry is outstanding, but I have yet to warm up to his prose. Writing both is a crossover that is very hard to master, even for the most talented of authors. At least in my opinion.