2002 National Book Award Winners Announced

Posted Thursday, Nov 21, 2002

Over 800 people gathered last night at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel for the 53rd annual National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner. The formal gala was hosted by comedian and author Steve Martin, who quipped in his opening remarks that "the total number of authors [nominees] I've heard of totals two." By the end of the night, however, at least four authors had made a name for themselves by winning the prestigious NBA.

Julia Glass took home the Fiction award for her debut novel, Three Junes (Pantheon Books), a May/June Book Sense 76 pick; Nancy Farmer won the Young People's Literature award for The House of the Scorpion (A Richard Jackson Book/Atheneum Books for Young Readers), a Winter 2002-2003 Children's Book Sense 76 Top Ten pick; Ruth Stone won in the Poetry category for In the Next Galaxy (Copper Canyon Press); and Robert A. Caro won the Nonfiction award for Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Alfred A. Knopf).

Though the affair was hosted by a renowned comedian, it was the 87-year-old poet Ruth Stone who garnered the most laughs with her self-deprecating and obviously unrehearsed acceptance speech. "I think you probably gave [this award] to me because I'm old," she remarked. "I'd like to thank my editor -- whose name I can't remember right now! The printers and the publishers are very important -- sometimes you think they do it for the money, but they really don't make a lot of money."

Prior to the awards ceremony, Stone told BTW that she was "really surprised" to be nominated. "I had no idea," she said. "I'm not a publishing freak, I never think about [publishing books]. I really don't, but every so often it will be suggested to me [to publish a book]. I write all the time."

Fiction winner Glass didn't expect to be nominated, either. To inform Glass she'd been nominated, National Book Foundation Executive Director Neil Baldwin looked her up in the phone book, she told BTW. "I was like, Who is this guy? He told me the news, and I said, Please don't tell me this is a crank call," Glass said with a laugh.

In her acceptance speech, Glass remarked, "I think I've felt emotions this intense only two other times in my life -- when my newborn babies were put in my arms -- except a whole lot fewer people were watching then…. Books are like these amazing objects, that transmute themselves into something completely different when you read them -- they could be a sailing vessel … a tree house … or a friend that tells you the facts of life too early and all wrong."

Young People's Literature winner Nancy Farmer told BTW, "I was surprised to be nominated -- you're always surprised." She told the crowd that she was thrilled to win the award. "I just feel like the moon was in the right phase and the planets were all lined up. We all could have won," she said.

Sonny Mehta of Knopf accepted the Nonfiction award for Robert Caro, who left the ceremony before the award announcement for personal reasons. Earlier in the evening, Caro spoke to BTW about the prospects of winning an NBA. "We'll see," he said. "I've been nominated before. You always hope [to win], though." He is currently working on the fourth book of his Lyndon Johnson series.

Prior to the awards announcement, the National Book Foundation presented the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters to author Philip Roth. In introducing the 69-year-old Roth, Martin listed the author's numerous literary awards, including a National Book Award for his very first novel, Goodbye, Columbus, when the author was only 27. "But that doesn’t impress me," Martin said. "Where's his Golden Globe award, or his Emmy? Where's his hit sitcom, 'Philip'?" Then, on a more serious note, Martin said, "To read Philip Roth properly you have to allow yourself to become overwhelmed. We are grateful to this writer for not sparing us the facts."

Roth was then greeted with a standing ovation. "I am honored and delighted, and I accept your award in the highest spirit," he said. He then spoke about his life as a Jewish boy growing in Newark, New Jersey, but one who would not constrain himself with the label of Jewish American or American Jew. "As a novelist, I think of myself as a free American" able to be what he chooses to be, and write what he wants to in a native tongue in which "he is most gratefully enslaved."

A theme running through this year's award ceremonies was how one book can affect a person's life. On the National Book Foundation Web site, NBA nominees discussed the book that changed their lives, and each attendee received a paperback, The Book That Changed My Life (Modern Library, for the National Book Foundation), edited by Diane Osen, which features authors such as James Carroll and E.L. Doctorow discussing the books that influenced them.

Additionally, Ingram Book Group sponsored a "The Book That Changed My Life" essay contest, in which it asked booksellers to describe, in just 250 words, the book that most affected their lives.

The winner of the contest was Shawn Wathen of Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Montana, who won an all-expense paid trip to New York and to the award ceremony for his essay on the book Collected Poems, 1931-1987, by Czech poet Czeslaw Milosz. During the ceremony, Martin introduced Wathan to the crowd. After struggling through Milosz's name, the comedian remarked, "Okay, now I can have another drink."

For his part, Wathan said the honor came as a complete shock. "When I initially composed the essay it was 530 words, so I had to do some cutting," he told BTW. "I’m thrilled beyond belief." --David Grogan