Prize Winners Reflection

I got the Giller Prize wrong, but I never got to read the winner, so what can you do.  Congratulations to Esi Edugyan and her win for Half-Blood Blues!

The one category I read everything for the National Book Award, poetry, I picked right!  Nikki Finney gave an emotional and powerful acceptance speech last night, and everyone seemed very moved.  You should definitely check out the volume that won the award, Head Off & Split.  Some are funny, and some speak to the historical experience of African Americans. She has a great ability to convey authentic emotion.  To me, this is what poetry should be!

Not having read any of the other nominees for the National Book Award other than the previews for fiction, I was still interested to see who the winners were.  Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward won for fiction, and I'll probably read the book at some point - I think the judges were won over by the visceral portrayal of poverty in the rural south.

The winner for non-fiction had the best title (it matters, don't you think?) - The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt.

Congratulations to all the winners and happy reading!