The National Book Awards

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Fiction:

•Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward--Winner!
•The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak
•The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht
•The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
•Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman

Nonfiction:

•The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt--Winner!
•Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
•The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism by Deborah Baker
•Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution by Mary Gabriel
•Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss

Poetry:

•Head Off & Split by Nikky Finnery--Winner!
•The Chameleon Couch by Yusef Komunyakaa
•Double Shadow by Carl Phillips
•Tonight No Poetry Will Serve: Poems: 2007-2010 by Adrienne Rich
•Devotions by Bruce Smith

Young People's Literature:

•Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai--Winner!
•My Name is Not Easy by Debbie Dahl Edwardson
•Flesh and Blood So Cheap by Albert Marrin
•Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt
•Chime by Franny Billingsley

Fiction:

• Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon--Winner!
• Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey
• Great House by Nicole Krauss
• So Much for That by Lionel Shriver
• I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita
. Nonfiction:

• Just Kids by Patti Smith--Winner!
• Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
• Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, Iraq by John W. Dower
• Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward by Justin Spring
• Every Man in This Village is a Liar: An Education in War by Megan Stack
Poetry:

• Lighthead by Terrance Hayes--Winner!
• The Eternal City: Poems by Kathleen Graber
• By the Numbers by James Richardson
• One with Others by C.D. Wright
• Ignatz by Monica Youn
Young People's Literature:

• Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine--Winner!
• Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
• Dark Water by Laura McNeal
• Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers
• One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Fiction:

• Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann--Winner!
• American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell
• In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
• Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips
• Far North by Marcel Theroux
Nonfiction:

• The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles--Winner!
• Following the Water: A Hydromancer's Notebook by David M. Carroll
• Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species by Sean B. Carroll
• Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin
• The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy by Adrienne Mayor
Poetry:

• Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy by Keith Waldrop--Winner!
• Versed by Rae Armantrout
• Or to Begin Again by Ann Lauterbach
• Speak Low by Carl Phillips
• Open Interval by Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon
Young People's Literature:

• Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose--Winner!
• Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman
• Stitches by David Small
• Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor
• Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia
Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: Gore Vidal

Fiction:

• Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen--Winner!
• The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon
• Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kushner
• Home by Marilynne Robinson
• The End by Salvatore Scibona
Nonfiction:

• The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed--Winner!
• This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust
• The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer
• Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives by Jim Sheeler
• The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order by Joan Wickersham
Poetry:

• Fire to Fire by Mark Doty--Winner!
• Watching the Spring Festival by Frank Bidart
• Creatures of a Day by Reginald Gibbons
• Without Saying by Richard Howard
• Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith
Young People's Literature:

• What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell--Winner!
• Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
• The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
• The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp
Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: Maxine Hong Kingston

Fiction:

• Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson--Winner!
• Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski
• Varieties of Disturbance by Lydia Davis
• Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
• Like You'd Understand, Anyway by Jim Shepard
Nonfiction:

• Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner--Winner!
• Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat
• God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens
• Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution by Woody Holton
• Ralph Ellison by Arnold Rampersad
Poetry:

• Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005 by Robert Hass--Winner!
• Magnetic North by Linda Gregerson
• The House on Boulevard St.: New and Selected Poems by David Kirby
• Old Heart by Stanley Plumly
• Messenger: New and Selected Poems, 1976-2006 by Ellen Bryant Voigt
Young People's Literature:

• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie--Winner!
• Skin Hunger by Kathleen Duey
• Touching Snow by M. Sindy Felin
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
• Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr
Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: Joan Didion

Fiction:

• The Echo Maker by Richard Powers--Winner!
• Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski
• A Disorder Peculiar to the Country by Ken Kalfus
• Eat the Document by Dana Spiotta
• The Zero by Jess Walters
Nonfiction:

• The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan--Winner!
• At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 by Taylor Branch
• Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandresekaran
• Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present by Peter Hessler
• The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
Poetry:

• Splay Anthem by Nathaniel Mackey--Winner!
• Averno by Louise Gluck
• Chromatic by H.L. Hix
• Angle of Yaw by Ben Lerner
• Capacity by James McMichael
Young People's Literature:

• The Pox Party (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Vol. 1) by M.T. Anderson--Winner!
• Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt
• Sold by Patricia McCormick
• The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin
• American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: Adrienne Rich

Fiction:

• Europe Central by William T. Vollmann--Winner!
• The March by E.L. Doctorow
• Veronica by Mary Gaitskill
• Trance by Christopher Sorrentino
• Holy Skirts by Rene Steinke
Nonfiction:

• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion--Winner!
• Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion by Alan Burdick
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau : Restless Genius by Leo Damrosch
• 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn
• Bury the Chains : Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves by Adam Hochschild
Poetry:

• Migration by W.S. Merwin--Winner!
• Where Shall I Wander by John Ashbery
• Stardust by Frank Bidart
• Habitat: New and Selected Poems, 1965-2005 by Brendan Galvin
• The Moment's Equation by Vern Rutsala
Young People's Literature:

• The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall--Winner!
• Where I Want to Be by Adele Griffin
• Inexcusable by Chris Lynch
• Autobiography of My Dead Brother by Walter Dean Myers
• Each Little Bird that Sings by Deborah Wiles
Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: Norman Mailer

Fiction:

• The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck--Winner!
• Madeleine is Sleeping by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
• Florida by Christine Schutt
• Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories by Joan Silber
• Our Kind: A Novel in Stories by Kate Walbert
Nonfiction:

• Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age by Kevin Boyle--Winner!
• Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer
• Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett by Jennifer Gonnerman
• Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt
• The 9/11 Commission Report by the 9/11 Commission
Poetry:

• Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003 by Jean Valentine--Winner!
• Shoah Train by William Heyen
• Collected Poems by Donald Justice
• The Rest of Love by Carl Phillips
• Goest by Cole Swensen
Young People's Literature:

• Godless by Pete Hautman--Winner!
• Honey, Baby, Sweetheart by Deb Caletti
• Harlem Stomp!: A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance by Laban Carrick Hill
• The Legend of Buddy Bush by Shelia P. Moses
• Luna by Julie Anne Peters
Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: Judy Blume

• Fiction:
The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard
• Nonfiction:
Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy by Carlos Eire
• Poetry:
The Singing by C.K. Williams
• Young People's Literature:
The Canning Season by Polly Horvath
• Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: Stephen King

• Fiction:
Three Junes by Julia Glass
• Nonfiction:
Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro
• Poetry:
In the Next Galaxy by Ruth Stone
• Young People's Literature:
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
• Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: Philip Roth

• Fiction:
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
• Nonfiction:
The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon
• Poetry:
Poems Seven: New and Complete Poetry by Alan Dugan
• Young People's Literature:
True Believer by Virginia Euwer Wolff
• Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: Arthur Miller

• Fiction:
In America by Susan Sontag
• Nonfiction:
In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
• Poetry:
Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems, 1988-2000 by Lucille Clifton
• Young People's Literature:
Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan
• Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: Ray Bradbury

• Fiction:
Waiting by Ha Jin
• Nonfiction:
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II by John W. Dower
• Poetry:
Vice: New and Selected Poems by Ai
• Young People's Literature:
When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt
• Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: Oprah Winfrey

• Fiction:
Charming Billy by Alice McDermott
• Nonfiction:
Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball
• Poetry:
This Time: New and Selected Poems by Gerald Stern
• Young People's Literature:
Holes by Louis Sachar
• Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: John Updike

• Fiction:
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
• Nonfiction:
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph J. Ellis
• Poetry:
Effort at Speech: New and Selected Poems by William Meredith
• Young People's Literature:
Dancing on the Edge by Han Nolan
• Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: Studs Terkel

• Fiction:
Ship Fever by Andrea Barrett
• Nonfiction:
An American Requiem by James Carroll
• Poetry:
Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey by Hayden Carruth
• Young People's Literature:
Parrot in the Oven by Victor Martinez
• Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: Toni Morrison

• Fiction:
Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth
• Nonfiction:
The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism by Tina Rosenberg
• Poetry:
Passing Through by Stanley Kunitz
• Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: David McCullough

• Fiction:
A Frolic of His Own by William Gaddis
• Nonfiction:
How We Die by Sherwin B. Nuland
• Poetry:
Worshipful Company of Fletchers by James Tate
• Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: Gwendolyn Brooks

• Fiction:
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
• Nonfiction:
United States: Essays, 1952-1992 by Gore Vidal
• Poetry:
Garbage by A.R. Ammons
• Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: Clifton Fadiman

• Fiction:
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
• Nonfiction:
Becoming a Man by Paul Monette
• Poetry:
New and Selected Poems by Mary Oliver
• Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: James Laughlin

• Fiction:
Mating by Norman Rush
• Nonfiction:
Freedom by Orlando Patterson
• Poetry:
What Work Is by Philip Levine
• Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: Eudora Welty

• Fiction:
Middle Passage by Charles Johnson
• Nonfiction:
The House of Morgan by Ron Chernow

• Fiction:
Spartina by John Casey
• Nonfiction:
From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas L. Friedman