The 2008 National Book Awards ceremony was held November 19 at Cipriani in downtown New York City, according to the foundation’s website. Eric Bogosian hosted the event.
The fiction prize went to Peter Matthiessen for Shadow Country. “I had a hard time persuading people that fiction was my natural thing, not nonfiction,” he said in his acceptance speech. Home by Marilynne Robinson, Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kushner, The Lazarus Project by Aleksander Hemon, and The End by Salvatore Scibona were also nominated. Gail Godwin presented the award.
Nonfiction honors went to Annette Gordon-Reed’s The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. Reed accepted the prize by first saying that “today is my birthday.” Other nominees included Drew Gilpin Faust’s This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, Jane Meyer’s The Dark Side, Jim Sheeler’s Final Salute, and Joan Wickersham’s The Suicide Index: Putting My Father’s Death in Order. In her presentation address, Marie Arana acknowledged each author’s “uncompromising commitment to truth.”
Mark Doty’s Fire to Fire won for poetry. Watching the Spring Festival by Frank Bidart and Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith’s were also in contention for the prize. Former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky presented the award, calling poetry “perhaps the most physical and bodily of all arts.”
What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell took the prize for young people’s literature. “You probably don’t know me,” Blundell said, “but I’ve worked for most of the houses in this room. This is the first book I’ve put my name on.” Lemony Snicket series author Daniel Handler presented.
Two special awards were given. Maxine Hong Kingston received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. In her speech, Kingston lamented the recent loss of cultural critic John Leonard. The Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community went to Barney Rosset, Grove Press publisher. Rosset remarked that the vindication of Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer was the happiest moment of his career at Grove.