The envelope...never mind

We stayed up late last night, primed to write the big page-one story about the National Book Award. The headline might have said something like "Massachusetts authors clean up in Gotham book fest!" Or "Harvard prexy nabs book biggie!" Ten p.m. came and our fingers were poised over the keyboard. Alas, the Bay State was zero for four.

But let us now praise famous writers whose books were great enough to be finalized, if not chosen as winners when the ballots were counted. Three are Cantabrigians. In nonfiction, there's Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust, for her bestselling "This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War"; and Joan Wickersham, for her memoir, "The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order." In poetry, there is Cambridge resident Frank Bidart, professor of English at Wellesley College, for his collection, "Watching the Spring Festival." Outside Middlesex County, Salvatore Scibona of Provincetown was finalized for his novel, "The End." Scibona is the writing coordinator at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center.

To all, we say, you're champs in our book, and look on the bright side: That golden "National Book Award Finalist" sticker on your book jackets will probably sell enough books to compensate for your not winning the $10,000 prize.