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National Book Critics Circle: Winners, Honors, New Yorker-ers

Filed under: On the Spot Tagged: awards, biography, books, fiction, Honor Moore, James Wood, John Ashbery, memoir, NBCC, Richard Brody, Roberto Bolaño, Steve Coll, V. S. Naipaul

Emily Gordon writes:

I’m SXSW-bound in a few hours, but I wanted to send a brief report from a stirring and satisfying National Book Critics Circle awards ceremony and reception. The 2008 finalists for NBCC awards included a good group of New Yorker-related people: the late Roberto Bolaño for 2666, Pierre Martory for The Landscapist, which was translated by John Ashbery; Richard Brody for Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life Of Jean-Luc Godard; Steve Coll for The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in an American Century; and Honor Moore for The Bishop’s Daughter (an excerpt of which ran in the magazine)—and it’s true, there are other people in the list you can certainly call New Yorker-related as well. After the ceremony, I spoke with Richard Brody, whose blog and Twitter presence we’ve noted recently with pleasure; he’s a lovely fellow, and I’m glad to have met him.

Bolaño’s book got the fiction prize, and after seeing the multiple-cover design, I want to own it. The rest of the prizes came home with Ron Charles, who won the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing; my former employer the PEN American Center, which got the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award; August Kleinzahler and Juan Felipe Herrera in a surprise poetry tie that had the brainy audience whispering in delight; Seth Lerer for criticism; Patrick French for biography (James Wood reviewed the book, The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul, in December) Ariel Sabar for autobiography; and Dexter Filkins for nonfiction. I’m sure the NBCC website will be full of details tomorrow, so look there then!

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About us

Hello! We're a small band of media enthusiasts, culture addicts, and journalists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, formerly a New Yorker fan site, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, politics, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.

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Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.

Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.

The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.

Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.

Other writing by Emily Gordon

Writing on theater: reviews (for Time Out Chicago; imperfect but workable search results)
Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)