Thursday, November 20, 2008

Hemings Book Wins National Book Award

Congratulations to Annette Gordon-Reed, whose The Hemingses of Monticello won the National Book Award for non-fiction, it was announced last night. This one is on my short list of books to read this month, and I'm delighted that it won.

Other winners:

- Peter Matthiessen won the fiction prize for his book Shadow Country.

- Mark Doty's Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems won the poetry award.

- In the young people's literature category, Judy Blundell won for What I Saw and How I Lied.

Full coverage from Motoko Rich at the NYTimes.

[Late Update: GalleyCat has posted an interview with Gordon-Reed. And here's a short YouTube clip of Gordon-Reed talking about the book.]