Big names up for National Book Award
Wellesley College poet Frank Bidart and Harvard literature professor Leo Damrosch are among the finalists for a 2005 National Book Award. Brendan Galvin of Truro is also a poetry finalist, and Jeanne Birdsall of Northampton was named in the young people's literature category.
The nominations, announced yesterday, came in a week with a flurry of awards. On Monday, England's prestigious Man Booker Prize went to Irish novelist John Banville for ''The Sea," and the Nobel Prize for literature is expected to be announced today amid a bitter quarrel in the Swedish Academy over last year's prize. The new Quill Awards -- regarded by some as an ill-conceived attempt by publishers to steer honors to big-selling books -- were handed out Tuesday, with prizes going to such big names as ''Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, historian David McCullough, and comedian Jon Stewart.
The list of this year's finalists in several categories for the National Book Award is dominated by distinguished names. The fiction nominees include E.L. Doctorow for ''The March," a novel about General William T. Sherman's Civil War March to the Sea; William T. Vollmann for ''Europe Central," a collection of stories about Germany and the Soviet Union in the early 20th century; and Mary Gaitskill for ''Veronica," a novel about the complex relationship between two women. Last year there was controversy over the fiction finalists, all of whom were lesser-known female writers from New York; the winner was Lily Tuck, for her novel ''The News From Paraguay."
Joan Didion and Adam Hochschild are among this year's nonfiction finalists. Didion's ''The Year of Magical Thinking" is a reflective memoir of the grave illness of her daughter and the unexpected death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne. Hochschild's history, ''Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves," is an account of the 18th- and 19th-century British antislavery movements.
Given by the National Book Foundation, the $10,000 awards will be announced at a New York dinner Nov. 16. Earlier this year, the foundation named novelist Norman Mailer winner of the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti winner of the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.
The complete list of finalists:
Fiction: E.L. Doctorow, ''The March"; Mary Gaitskill, ''Veronica"; William T. Vollmann, ''Europe Central"; Christopher Sorrentino, ''Trance," based on the kidnapping of heiress Patty Hearst in 1974; and Rene Steinke, ''Holy Skirts," a novel about the flamboyant early 20th-century baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven.
Nonfiction: Leo Damrosch, ''Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius"; ''Joan Didion, ''The Year of Magical Thinking"; Adam Hochschild, ''Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves"; Alan Burdick, ''Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion," about the worldwide spread of alien plant and animal species; and Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn, ''102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers."
Poetry: Frank Bidart, ''Star Dust: Poems"; Brendan Galvin, ''Habitat: New and Selected Poems, 1965-2005"; W.S. Merwin, ''Migration: New and Selected Poems"; John Ashbery, ''Where Shall I Wander: New Poems"; and Vern Rutsala, ''The Moment's Equation."
Young people's literature: Jeanne Birdsall, ''The Penderwicks"; Adele Griffin, ''Where I Want to Be," a novel about teenage sisters; Chris Lynch, ''Inexcusable," a novel about a boy accused of date rape; Walter Dean Myers, ''Autobiography of My Dead Brother," a novel about two teenage boys in Harlem; and Deborah Wiles, ''Each Little Bird that Sings," a coming-of-age novel of a girl, set in Snapfinger, Miss.
David Mehegan can be reached at mehegan@globe.com. 
