Society and book culture: “National book award” winners announced in the USA

On November, 18 the winners of the National book award were announced in the USA.  The winner in the category “Fiction” became the writer Colum McCann for his novel "Let the Great World Spin".

The novel narrates about the interwoven fates of several residents of New-York in 1970-s. "By representing the life of scores of people the writer creates extremely surrealistic image of the decaying New-York", - cites the Reuters agency the jury’s conclusion.

Colum McCann is the prize-holder of several prestigious literary awards, and his books have been translated into more than 20 languages. Although the books of McCann didn’t come out in the Russian language, the translations of his works were published in the “Foreign Literature” journal.

The National book award in the category "Non-fiction" went to T.J. Stiles for his book "The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt" – the biography of the entrepreneur Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the first businessmen in the USA.

Keith Waldrop was awarded in the category “Poetry” for his collected poems "Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy". Phillip Hoose was announced the winner in the category "Children’s Books" for his book "Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice".

Special prizes were given to Gore Vidal for the distinguished contribution to American Letter (DCAL) – a prize awarded to the person “who enriched American literary heritage over a life of service, or a corpus of work”, and Dave Eggers 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 (Literarian Award). This year commemorating 60 years of the award’s foundation the organizers have initiated the prize “The winner among the winners”. According to the readers’ opinion this prize went to Flannery O’Connor.

Together with the Pulitzer Prize the National Book Award is one of the most eminent literary awards in the USA. All the winners get bronze sculptures and a $10,000 cash prize.