National Book Awards take historic emphasis, Stephen King honored
Shirley Hazzard last night won the National Book Award for fiction, for her novel of postwar Japan, "The Great Fire."
The winner in nonfiction was Carlos Eire, for "Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy."
In the poetry category, the award went to C. K. Williams for his collection, "The Singing: Poems." The winner in young people's literature was Polly Horvath for "The Canning Season."
Given by the National Book Foundation, the award includes a $10,000 prize.
Hazzard's novel concerns a May-September relationship between an author, who is in Japan to observe the aftermath of World War II, and the 17-year-old daughter of an Australian army officer.
In his memoir of growing up in prerevolutionary Cuba, Yale professor Eire describes the comfortable, doomed world of his eccentric family, especially his father, an art collector and judge. When Fidel Castro took control, young Eire was one of 14,000 children airlifted to the United States.
The main character of Horvath's novel for young readers, "The Canning Season," is sent to live with two eccentric aunts in Maine while her mother concentrates on gaining admission to a tony country club in Pensacola.
Horror novelist Stephen King received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Though the award to King had elicited clucking in literary circles when it was announced in October -- previous medal-winners have included Eudora Welty, Saul Bellow, and Philip Roth -- foundation director Neil Baldwin praised King's writing as "securely rooted in the great American tradition that glorifies spirit-of-place and the abiding power of narrative." King has said he will keep the medal, but give the $10,000 back to the foundation for its literacy and educational programs.
The runner-up finalists in the four categories were as follows.
In fiction: Edward P. Jones for a novel, "The Known World"; Scott Spencer for "A Ship Made of Paper"; T. Coraghessan Boyle for "Drop City"; and Marianne Wiggins for "Evidence of Things Unseen."
In nonfiction: George Howe Colt for "The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home"; John D'Emilio for "Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin"; Erik Larson for "The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America"; and Anne Applebaum for "Gulag: A History."
In young people's literature: Jim Murphy for "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793"; Richard Peck for "The River Between Us"; Jacqueline Woodson for "Locomotion"; and Paul Fleischman for "Breakout."
In poetry: Charles Simic for "The Voice at 3 a.m.: Selected Late and New Poems"; Carol Muske-Dukes for "Sparrow: Poems"; Kevin Young for "Jelly Roll: A Blues"; and Louis Simpson for "The Owner of the House: New Collected Poems, 1940-2001."
David Mehegan can be reached at mehegan@globe.com.
