2009 National Book Awards Finalists Announced

The finalists for the 2009 National Book Awards in four categories -- fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people's literature -- were announced by the National Book Foundation on Wednesday, October 14. The winners will be announced at the 60th National Book Awards Benefit Dinner and Ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on Wednesday, November 18.

This year's 20 finalists are:

Fiction

• Bonnie Jo Campbell, American Salvage (Wayne State University Press)
• Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin (Random House)
• Daniyal Mueenuddin, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (Norton)
• Jayne Anne Phillips, Lark and Termite (Knopf) (A February 2009 Indie Next List Notable)
• Marcel Theroux, Far North (FSG)

Nonfiction

• David M. Carroll, Following the Water: A Hydromancer's Notebook (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Sean B. Carroll, Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Greg Grandin, Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt)
• Adrienne Mayor, The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy (Princeton University Press)
• T.J. Stiles, The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (Knopf)

Poetry

• Rae Armantrout, Versed (Wesleyan University Press)
• Ann Lauterbach, Or to Begin Again (Viking Penguin)
• Carl Phillips, Speak Low (FSG)
• Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, Open Interval (University of Pittsburgh Press)
• Keith Waldrop, Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy (University of California Press)

Young People's Literature

• Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith (Henry Holt)
• Phillip Hoose, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (FSG)
• David Small, Stitches (Norton) (An October 2009 Indie Next Great Read)
• Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic)
• Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped (HarperTeen/HarperCollins)

The National Book Foundation will honor Gore Vidal for his Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and Dave Eggers with the Literarian Award.

The title chosen by the public as the Best of the National Book Awards Fiction in balloting now underway will also be announced at the 60th National Book Awards Ceremony and Dinner.

The finalists for Best of the National Book Awards Fiction are:

• The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• The Collected Stories of William Faulkner (Random House)
• The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor (FSG)
• Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon (Penguin)
• Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison (Random House)
• The Stories of John Cheever (Random House)