New York, Oct. 5 (US): Gil Jones’ Birdcatcher, a lyrical short novel about a writer’s trip to Ibiza and the talented and unstable couple she stays with, is a finalist for the National Book Award for the novel.
The non-profit National Writers Foundation on Tuesday announced five finalists in each of the five competitive categories — fiction, non-fiction, poetry, youth literature and translated books — shortlisted from the 10 longlisted last month, the AP reports.
Activist nominees include former Olympic gold medalist Tommy Smith, a youth literary nominee for “Victory. Stand Up!: Raising My Fist for Justice,” co-written by Derek Barnes and David Annapoel.
Sharon Olds, whose previous award has included a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Critics Circle Award, is a finalist for “Ballads” and “His Name is George Floyd” poetry by Robert Samuels and Toulouse Oloroneba, a non-fiction nominee.
Jones, author of the popular “Corregidora” and six other previous works of fiction, is the most established writer in a category of three debut novels.
Among the 2018 translated book nominees are Japanese author Yoko Tawada and translator Margaret Mitsutani for Scattered All Over the Earth.
The winners, who receive $10,000 each, will be announced on November 16 during a dinner in Manhattan, in person for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began.
The previously announced honorary awards will be presented to cartoonist Art Spiegelmann and Tracey D. Hall, Executive Director of the American Library Association.
The nominees for each category are chosen by committees of five, with judges including authors, editors, booksellers, and other members of the literary community. In all, the publishers submitted 1,772 works, including 607 non-fiction and 463 fiction.
Of the 25 books nominated on Tuesday, 10 were released by Penguin Random House – the nation’s largest commercial publisher – and one by Simon & Schuster, which Penguin is trying to buy.
The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to prevent the merger, claiming that the new company would reduce competition and reduce the author’s progress. The judge’s decision is expected this fall.
In addition to “The Birdcatcher,” the literary nominees include three literary works: “The Rabbit Hutch” by Tess Gonte, “All This Could Be Different” by Sarah Thankam Matthews, and “Babylon Town” by Alejandro Varela. Jamil Jan Kochai has reached the finals of his second book on the novel, The Hunt for Haji Hotak and Other Stories.
In fiction, the finalists alongside “My Name is George Floyd” are Megan O’Rourke’s “Hidden Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness”, and Emmy Berry’s “South to America: A Journey Down Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of the Nation,” breathless “David Quammen” : The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus” and the memoirs of Ingrid Rojas Contreras “The Man Who Can Move the Clouds.”
In addition to “Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice,” among the finalists for youth literature are Kelly Barnhill’s “Owls and Orphans”, “The Catholic School Lesbian Guide” by Sonora Reyes, “All My Fury” by “Saba Taher” and Another “Maizi Chen” by Lisa Yi by chance.
Poetry finalists alongside Balladz’s song are “Look at This Blue” by Alison Adelle Hedge Coke, “Punks” by John Kane, “Best Burberry” by Roger Reeves, and Jenny Xie “The Rupture Tense.”
Besides “scattered all over the earth” in the translated literature, Jon Voss’s “New Name: Septology VI-VII” is a candidate, with subtitles from Norwegian by Damion Searles.
The other finalists are “Kibogo” by Scholastique Mukasongi, translated from French by Marc Polizotti. Monica Ojeda “Jawbone”, Sarah Booker translation from Spanish; and Samanta Schweblin’s “Seven Empty Houses,” translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell.