Highlights From the 2010 National Book Awards

For sixty-one years, the National Book Awards Ceremony has been a nightlong celebration of the written word. At this year’s event, held yesterday at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City, former bookseller, current rocker, and, now, National Book Award-winning writer Patti Smith voiced the night’s theme: “There’s nothing in our material world more beautiful than the book.”

National Book Award winners: Jaimy Gordon, Patti Smith, Terrance Hayes, and Kathryn Erskine

Here’s a look, in words and photos, at some of last night’s highlights,

Young People’s Literature Winner: Kathryn Erskine, Mockingbird (Philomel Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group) – A Summer 2010 Children’s Indie Next List Recommendation

In her acceptance speech, Erskine thanked educators for “teaching children to think deeply and critically.” Following the ceremony Erksine said that independent booksellers were the “heart of the industry.” She named some of her favorite indies, including Lemuria Bookstore in Jackson, Mississippi, and Books of Wonder in New York, where she read from Mockingbird earlier this week.

Poetry Winner: Terrance Hayes, Lighthead (Penguin Books)

Hayes, who won by a unanimous vote among the judges, seemed surprised to be in the spotlight. He offered a quick expression of happiness and then let everyone “get on with the rest of the show.” BTW spoke with Hayes who said both he and his spouse, Yona Harvey, also a poet, were fans of New York City’s St. Mark’s Bookshop.

Nonfiction Winner: Patti Smith, Just Kids (Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers) – A February 2010 Indie Notables Title

Smith approached the lectern in tears and thanked all in attendance. “I’ve always loved books, all my life,” she said. “When I was a clerk at Scribner’s, I dreamed of having a book of mine that I could put out on the shelf. When I would unpack the National Book Award winners, I used to wonder what it would feel like to be a winner. Thank you for letting me find out.”

Fiction winner: Jaimy Gordon, Lord of Misrule (McPherson & Co.)

Humility was a common trait among last night’s winners. Gordon, whose win seemed to stun the audience into a momentary silence (with the exception of her publishers), said she was “totally unprepared, totally surprised,” and added, “To everyone who was involved in this book in any way, thank you very much.” 

Former National Book Award winners were also in attendance. Mark Doty, here with spouse Paul Lisicky, won the 2008 National Book Award for Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems (HarperCollins). 

Justin Kaplan with Philippa Brophy and his wife, Anne Bernays. In 1967, Kaplan won the National Book Award for Arts and Letters for Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain (Simon & Schuster).

Nicole Krauss, a fiction finalist this year for Great House (W.W. Norton), talked to BTW about the excitement of indie bookstore openings in New York in the last few years, Greenlight Bookstore and McNally Jackson among them.

Nonfiction finalist Barbara Demick (Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, Spiegel & Grau) now lives in Beijing and visits “a wonderful independent bookstore” called The Bookworm. When she grew up in the New York metro area, she shopped Shakespeare & Co. and Coliseum Books.