National Book Award winners for 2008
by sernabad
The National Book Awards for 2008, were announced last night in New York.
Annette Gordon-Reed won in the nonfiction category. The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family is the story of three generations of Sally Hemings and her relatives, all slaves owned by Thomas Jefferson. Ms. Gordon-Reed, who celebrated her 50th birthday yesterday, is the first African-American in 17 years to win this honor.
Peter Matthiessen, 81, caused a bit of a dust-up with his win in the fiction category. Shadow Country is the one-volume version of his Edgar J. Watson trilogy, originally written in the 1990s. Matthiessen triumphed over some critics who complained that the material is not new; others were said to miss the 400 pages deleted from the earlier novels.
Mark Doty captured the poetry category for Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems.
First novelist, Judy Blundell, took home the young people’s literature category for What I Saw and How I Lied. In 1947, Evie, 15, discovers that her beloved parents are entangled in seedy dealings with one of her stepfather’s fellow soldiers.
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