The Millions

Award season is hitting its stride, and this year’s National Book Award finalists have been announced. For the second year in a row, the fiction finalists number four women versus one male author, and many of the “bigger” literary releases of the year are nowhere to be found. Also for the second year in a row, a New Yorker “20 Under 40″ writer is recognized. By virtue of that, Téa Obreht may be the most well-known name of the bunch (our review). A pair of independent or university presses are represented among the fiction finalists, including Bellevue Literary Press, which made its name when Paul Harding’s Tinkers won the 2010 Pulitzer.

In nonfiction, we have the first graphic book in to be recognized in this category.

Update: There was a late addition to the YA finalists list: Chime by Franny Billingsley

Update 2: Due to a mixup by and subsequent pressure from the Foundation, Lauren Myracle has withdrawn Shine from consideration.

Here’s a list of the finalists in all four categories with bonus links and excerpts where available:

Fiction:

• The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak (excerpt)
• The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht (excerpt)
• The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka (excerpt)
• Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman (excerpt)
• Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (excerpt)

Nonfiction:

• The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism by Deborah Baker (excerpt)
• Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution by Mary Gabriel (excerpt)
• The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt (excerpt)
• Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable (our review)
• Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss (excerpt)

Poetry:

• Head Off & Split by Nikky Finney
• The Chameleon Couch by Yusef Komunyakaa
• Double Shadow by Carl Phillips
• Tonight No Poetry Will Serve: Poems: 2007-2010 by Adrienne Rich (excerpt)
• Devotions by Bruce Smith

Young People’s Literature:

• My Name is Not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson
• Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai (excerpt)
• Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy by Albert Marrin (excerpt)
• Shine by Lauren Myracle
• Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt (excerpt)