Health & Fitness
This Book Takes the Prize: The National Book Awards
The first article in a series that focuses on various literary prizes- their origins, criteria, and other relevant information about the award.
On Wednesday the winners of the National Book Award will be announced. An award is given to a book in each of the following categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Young Peoples Literature (mostly includes YA/Teen titles), and Poetry.
The awards were established in 1950 and are administered by the National Book Foundation, a not for profit organization that supports literary pursuits. The judges for each category are all published authors, who are known for excellent work in their particular genre. The judges are organized into five person committees with one person acting as chairperson.
For a book to be included as part of the judging process it must be submitted by the publisher to the National Book Foundation. Books cannot be submitted by the individual authors. Books must have been written by an American citizen and has been published between Dec. 1 of the previous year and Nov. 30 of the current year.
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All submissions are read by the committee members. This is usually done over the summer. The number of submissions vary with each category, but in certain categories there can be over 500 submissions. In September the committees each compile their short-lists of five titles and these are announced in October.
The finalists are awarded $1,000 and a medal the night before before the official dinner ceremony where each author does a reading from their nominated work. This year the medal ceremony will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 15.
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The winners are announced at a second formal dinner ceremony to be held on Wednesday, Nov. 16 at Cipriani in Manhattan. For the first time, the Awards Ceremony will shown in a live webcast. It can be watched starting Wednesday evening at 8 p.m. on the National Book Foundation’s website. Winners receive $10,000 and a bronze sculpture.
Stop into the Library and check out our display of past and present winner’s and nominees currently on display in the Front Reading Room on the table with the computer. We will be posting the names of the winners on both our Facebook page and our Twitter feed. We will also post the winner list as part of the display.
