We must say, with all the controversy and discussion surrounding the National Book Awards, we expected something along the way of fireworks. A denunciation of the process. A Native American accepting the award on behalf of someone. Random violence because someone said something someone else found offensive, though nobody could explain why.
We may have to stop watching television for a little while.
Lily Tuck won the fiction award, beating out a host of competitors whose lack of commercial success generated more column inches than analysis of their work. The 9/11 Commission did not win the non-fiction. Other authors won other awards. The world remains as it was when awoke yesterday. This is probably not a good thing.
Yes, we really did expect more.
- South America Epic Wins the National Book Award (Note: Registration required)
Today’s Deluxe issue of Publisher’s Lunch offered an especially snarky (and we mean that as a compliment) round-up of NBA coverage. It’s not posted on the PL site yet, but we strongly recommend checking back multiple times as it’s rare we’re amused so often within a single post.
3 responses so far ↓
Susan Gable // Nov 18, 2004 at 4:47 pm
I followed the link to PL, and then I followed a link from there to the Washington Post, and a wonderful article about Judy Blume. I know I’ve said before how much I adored her books as a child, and as a grown-up, and as an elementary teacher.
Funny bit, though – when she got the letter about the award, she didn’t know what it was. G. So apparently, these awards really don’t mean much to most people – not even some bigwig authors know about them. LOL!
booksquare // Nov 18, 2004 at 9:34 pm
I haven’t even gotten to the Judy Blume stuff. Darn work! Thanks for reminding me (revisions done???). Will hopefully get to the story before the world passes it by.
Susan Gable // Nov 19, 2004 at 6:09 am
Revisions done and on their way to the editor’s desk today, thanks for asking. And I did it all without havine access to the secret “formula” since I still couldn’t find my memo with the information about that and the way to make the invisibile ink visible. LOL!