The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards.[1][2] Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book Awards,[3] was established. The mission of the National Book Foundation is "to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America."[3] The awards ceremony is held each November in New York City.
Categories[]
National Book Awards are given in each of four categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry , and young people's literature . Awards have been given in various other categories since 1950, but they have since been retired or subsumed into the remaining categories. The National Book Foundation also presents two lifetime achievement awards each year: the "Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters" and the "Literarian Award."[3]
Only publishers can submit books for the National Book Award. Each category is overseen by an independent and expert five-member judging panel. Panels typically consider hundreds of books per category each year. A total of twenty Finalists (five per category) are announced in October. A chair from each panel announces the Winner during the "National Book Awards Ceremony and Dinner" held in November. Winners each receive a $10,000 cash prize and a bronze sculpture; Finalists each receive $1,000, a medal, and a citation from the panel jury.[4]
The Foundation has expanded its celebration of American literature by creating National Book Awards Week. Beginning with 5 Under 35, which spotlights emerging fiction writers as selected and introduced by National Book Award Winners and Finalists. The event calendar continues with the National Book Awards Teen Press Conference, the private National Book Awards Medal Ceremony, and the National Book Award Finalists Reading, and culminates in the Awards Ceremony, focusing attention on the best writing in America.
Winners of the National Book Awards[]
- Main article: List of winners of the National Book Award
Poetry[]
| 1950 | William Carlos Williams | Paterson: Book III and Selected Poems | |
| 1951 | Wallace Stevens | The Auroras of Autumn | |
| 1952 | Marianne Moore | Collected Poems | |
| 1953 | Archibald MacLeish | Collected Poems, 1917-1952 | |
| 1954 | Conrad Aiken | Collected Poems | |
| 1955 | Wallace Stevens | The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens | |
| 1956 | W.H. Auden | The Shield of Achilles | |
| 1957 | Richard Wilbur | Things of This World | |
| 1958 | Robert Penn Warren | Promises: Poems, 1954-1956 | |
| 1959 | Theodore Roethke | Words for the Wind | |
| 1960 | Robert Lowell | Life Studies | |
| 1961 | Randall Jarrell | The Woman at the Washington Zoo | |
| 1962 | Alan Dugan | Poems | |
| 1963 | William Stafford | Traveling Through the Dark | |
| 1964 | John Crowe Ransom | Selected Poems | |
| 1965 | Theodore Roethke | The Far Field | |
| 1966 | James Dickey | Buckdancer's Choice | |
| 1967 | James Merrill | Nights and Days | |
| 1968 | Robert Bly | The Light Around the Body | |
| 1969 | John Berryman | His Toy, His Dream, His Rest | |
| 1970 | Elizabeth Bishop | The Complete Poems | |
| 1971 | Mona Van Duyn | To See, To Take | |
| 1972 | Frank O'Hara | The Collected Works of Frank O'Hara | |
| 1972 | Howard Moss | Selected Poems | |
| 1973 | A. R. Ammons | Collected Poems, 1951-1971 | |
| 1974 | Allen Ginsberg | The Fall of America: Poems of these States, 1965-1971 | |
| 1974 | Adrienne Rich | Diving into the Wreck: Poems 1971-1972 | |
| 1975 | Marilyn Hacker | Presentation Piece | |
| 1976 | John Ashbery | Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror | |
| 1977 | Richard Eberhart | Collected Poems, 1930-1976 | |
| 1978 | Howard Nemerov | The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov | |
| 1979 | James Merrill | Mirabell: Book of Numbers | |
| 1980 | Philip Levine | Ashes: Poems New and Old | |
| 1981 | Lisel Mueller | The Need to Hold Still | |
| 1982 | William Bronk | Life Supports: New and Collected Poems | |
| 1983 | Galway Kinnell | Selected Poems | |
| 1983 | Charles Wright | Country Music: Selected Early Poems | |
| 1985 to 1990 |
no award | ||
| 1991 | Philip Levine | What Work Is | |
| 1992 | Mary Oliver | New and Selected Poems | |
| 1993 | A. R. Ammons | Garbage | |
| 1994 | James Tate | A Worshipful Company of Fletchers | |
| 1995 | Stanley Kunitz | Passing Through: The Later Poems | |
| 1996 | Hayden Carruth | Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey | |
| 1997 | William Meredith | Effort at Speech: New and Selected Poems | |
| 1998 | Gerald Stern | This Time: New and Selected Poems | |
| 1999 | Ai | Vice: New and Selected Poems | |
| 2000 | Lucille Clifton | Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988-2000 | |
| 2001 | Alan Dugan | Poems Seven: New and Complete Poetry | |
| 2002 | Ruth Stone | In the Next Galaxy | |
| 2003 | C. K. Williams | The Singing | |
| 2004 | Jean Valentine | Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003 | |
| 2005 | W. S. Merwin | Migration: New and Selected Poems | |
| 2006 | Nathaniel Mackey | Splay Anthem | |
| 2007 | Robert Hass | Time and Materials: Poems, 1997-2005 | |
| 2008 | Mark Doty | Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems | |
| 2009 | Keith Waldrop | Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy | |
| 2010 | Terrance Hayes | Lighthead | |
| 2011 | Nikky Finney | Head Off & Split |
Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters[]
The "Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters" (DCAL) is a lifetime achievement award. The medal comes with a cash prize of $10,000. The recipient is a person who "has enriched American literary heritage over a life of service, or a corpus of work."[5]
- 1991: Eudora Welty
- 1992: James Laughlin
- 1993: Clifton Fadiman
- 1994: Gwendolyn Brooks
- 1995: David McCullough
- 1996: Toni Morrison
- 1997: Studs Terkel
- 1998: John Updike
- 1999: Oprah Winfrey
- 2000: Ray Bradbury
- 2001: Arthur Miller
- 2002: Philip Roth
- 2003: Stephen King
- 2004: Judy Blume
- 2005: Norman Mailer
- 2006: Adrienne Rich
- 2007: Joan Didion
- 2008: Maxine Hong Kingston
- 2009: Gore Vidal
- 2010: Tom Wolfe
Literarian Award[]
The "Literarian Award" is a lifetime achievement award. It is "presented to an individual for outstanding service to the American literary community, whose life and work exemplify the goals of the National Book Foundation to expand the audience for literature and to enhance the cultural value of literature in America."[6]
- 2005: Lawrence Ferlinghetti
- 2006: Robert B. Silvers and Barbara Epstein
- 2007: Terry Gross
- 2008: Barney Rosset
- 2009: Dave Eggers
- 2010: Joan Ganz Cooney
See also[]
- The Man Booker Prize
- The Commonwealth Writers Prize
- The Prix Goncourt
- The Costa Book Awards, formerly the Whitbread Book Awards
- The Governor General's Award
- Literary festival
Notes[]
- ↑ National Book Award
- ↑ Seattle's Egan wins National Book Award
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 National Book Award: About Us"
- ↑ National Book Foundation, Presenter of National Book Awards
- ↑ National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
- ↑ Joan Ganz Cooney, Sesame Street Visionary, 2010 Literarian Recipient, The National Book Foundation
External links[]
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