New Year, New Book Award Nominations      

It’s a new year, and that means new book award nominations. Earlier in the month, the Man Asian Literary Prize, honoring the best novel by an Asian writer written in or translated into English, announced its 2012 shortlist. The nominees represent the nations of Pakistan, Japan, Turkey, Malaysia and India. You can read more about the finalists here, and the winner will be announced on March 14.

Check out the contenders!  

Silent House by Orhan Pamuk
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng 

Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil 

Between Clay and Dust by Musharraf Ali Farooqi (not yet available in a U.S. edition)
The Briefcase by Hiromi Kawakami (look for this title in our catalog in February)

The National Book Critics Circle also announced the finalists for its annual awards, and they include many popular and critically acclaimed titles from 2012. The NBCC Awards recognize the best books published in the United States in six categories: autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Among the fiction finalists are Laurent Binet, whose HHhH won France’s top literary prize, the Prix Goncourt. Poetry finalists include David Ferry, 2012 National Book Award Winner. Read more about all of the NBCC contenders here. The winners will be announced on February 28.

And the nominees are:

AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande
My Poets by Maureen N. McLane
House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid
Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton
In the House of the Interpreter by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
 
BIOGRAPHY
The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 4 by Robert A. Caro
All We Know: Three Lives by Lisa Cohen
Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece by Michael Gorra
Robert Duncan, The Ambassador from Venus: A Biography by Lisa Jarnot

The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
 
CRITICISM
Reinventing Bach by Paul Elie

Waiting for the Barbarians: Essays from the Classics to Pop Culture by Daniel Mendelsohn
Madness, Rack, and Honey by Mary Ruefle
Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights by Marina Warner

The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness by Kevin Young


FICTION
HHhH by Laurent Binet

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson

Magnificence by Lydia Millet 

NW by Zadie Smith
 
NONFICTION
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo

Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll

Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story by Jim Holt 

Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen

Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon

 
POETRY
Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations by David Ferry 

On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths by Lucia Perillo

Fragile Acts by Allan Peterson
Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys by D. A. Powell
Olives by A. E. Stallings

If we don't have it at Oakland Public Library, try LinkPlus.  If you're new to LinkPlus, read this.

Three finalists for the Story Prize were also announced earlier in January. The Story Prize is an annual prize that recognizes the finest collection of short stories written in English and published in in the United States. It was originally established to recognize the short form since it is often overlooked for larger awards. This year they added an additional prize, The Story Prize Spotlight Award, to recognize an additional collection of short fiction. The first ever Spotlight Award will be given to author Krys Lee for her debut collection Drifting House. Read more about this year’s nominations here. The winner will be announced on March 13.

Check out one of the 2012 Story Prize finalists:
Stay Awake by Dan Chaon 

This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz
Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins


And the winner of the 2012 Story Prize Spotlight Award:
Drifting House by Krys Lee


If that isn’t enough book award excitement for you, the Mystery Writers of America recently announced finalists for the Edgar Awards. In order to heighten the mystery, I’ll wait to post those lists next week. If you can’t handle the suspense, you can view the nominees here.

Posted on 1/20/2013 by Christy Thomas, Librarian, Main Library.