Bibliofemme News
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18/11/2004
Winners of US National Book Awards Announced
The News from Paraguay written by Lily Tuck has won the 2004 National Book Awards prize for Fiction in the US. The story is set in 19th century Paraguay is an epic story of love and history.
Other winners include Kevin Boyle's Arc of Justice, which focuses on a black family's fight to live in a white Detroit neighbourhood in the 1920s, which won the prize for nonfiction. The 9/11 Commission Report was also a non-fiction category finalist.
The young people's literature prize went to Pete Hautman's Godless, the story of a skeptical teenager who helps found a fanciful new religion, in which a water tower is transformed into a god. Jean Valentine's Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003 won for poetry.
Children's author Judy Blume received an honorary medal and, noting her many battles with censors over such explicit works as Forever, urged audience members to fight for free expression.
First prize in the competitive categories was worth $10,000 while finalists received $1,000.
The ceremony was overshadowed by accusations of snobbery when five unknown women authors were selected in the Fiction category.
In accepting the prize, Tuck referred to her fellow unknown finalists (Joan Silber, Kate Walbert, Christine Schutt and Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum) and said they "all agreed how allied we are and how very supportive we feel of each other."
