Local authors are finalists for national awards
Concord-based historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and novelist John Updike of Beverly Farms are finalists for 2005 National Book Critics Circle Awards. Goodwin was nominated for her profile of Abraham Lincoln as president, Updike for his art criticism.
Other local finalists are Ron Slate of Milton for poetry and Tufts historian Martin J. Sherwin, coauthor of a biography of scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The winners, in six categories, will be announced March 3 in New York.
The complete list of finalists:
Fiction: E.L. Doctorow, for ''The March"; Mary Gaitskill, for ''Veronica"; Andrea Levy, for ''Small Island"; Kazuo Ishiguro, for ''Never Let Me Go"; and William T. Vollmann, for ''Europe Central."
General nonfiction: Svetlana Alexievich, for ''Voices From Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster"; Robert Fisk, for ''The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East"; Ellen Meloy, for ''Eating Stone: Imagination and the Loss of the Wild"; Caroline Moorehead, for ''Human Cargo: A Journey Among Refugees"; and Anthony Shadid, for ''Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War."
Biography: Doris Kearns Goodwin, for ''Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln"; Ron Powers, for ''Mark Twain: A Life"; Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, for ''American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer"; Carolyn Burke, for ''Lee Miller: A Life"; and Jonathan Coe, for ''Like a Fiery Elephant: The Story of B.S. Johnson."
Criticism: John Updike, for ''Still Looking: Essays on American Art"; Arthur C. Danto, for ''Unnatural Wonders"; Hal Crowther, for ''Gather at the River: Notes From the Post-Millennial South"; William Logan, for ''The Undiscovered Country: Poetry in the Age of Tin"; and Eliot Weinberger, for ''What Happened Here: Bush Chronicles."
Autobiography: Joan Didion, for ''The Year of Magical Thinking"; Francine du Plessix Gray, for ''Them: A Memoir of Parents"; Judith Moore, for ''Fat Girl: A True Story"; Orhan Pamuk, for ''Istanbul: Memories and the City"; and Vikram Seth, for ''Two Lives."
Poetry: Ron Slate, for ''The Incentive of the Maggot"; Richard Siken, for ''Crush"; Simon Armitage, for ''The Shout"; Manuel Blas de Luna, for ''Bent to Earth"; and Jack Gilbert, for ''Refusing Heaven."
David Mehegan can be reached at mehegan@globe.com. 
