2008 NBCC Winners Announced

Seven men won the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Awards last night at a ceremony in downtown Manhattan. “Wait until they’re serializing novels on Twitter,” quipped critic Scott McLemee as he handed out the Excellence in Reviewing Award to Ron Charles (pictured). “Then you’ll really have something to write about. I suppose we’ll have to review them on Twitter.”

Publishing woes, the uncertain rise of digital reading, and the decline of traditional review outlets loomed over the proceedings. “I don’t know if I’m nervous or if this is survivor’s guilt,” remarked Charles, alluding to the shrinking books coverage in newspapers and magazines–his grim jokes were greeted with rousing applause. The night concluded with a tribute to NBCC member John Leonard who passed away in November.

Fiction Winner: Roberto Bolano, “2666,” Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Poetry Winners: (this was the first time in NBCC history that two awards were given in any category): August Kleinzahler, “Sleeping It Off in Rapid City,” Farrar, Strauss and Juan Felipe Herrera, “Half the World in Light,” U of Arizona Press (Click here for an exclusive interview)
Criticism Winner: Seth Lerer “Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter,” University of Chicago Press (Click here for an exclusive interview)
Biography Winner: Patrick French, “The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul” Knopf.
Autobiography Winner: Ariel Sabar, “My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq” Algonquin
Nonfiction Winner: Dexter Filkins, “The Forever War,” Knopf

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