And the winner is Mark Doty’s Fire to Fire.
Doty’s speech: “Robert is right. This is really good baloney.” Very nervous. “I am glad to be alive in a time when poems like [my finalists] are written.” Shoutout to Terry, editor at HarperCollins. Shoutout to the late Robert Jones, who brought Doty to Harper. Recently married his partner. “It is very plain that we are on the path to equality for all Americans, and that nothing is going to turn us back.”
And the winner is Judy Blundell’s What I Saw and How I Lied.
Blundell’s speech: Always a bad idea to follow Daniel Handler. “Most of you don’t know me, but I’ve probably worked for many of the houses in this room tonight.” “This is the first book I put my name on. When I started in publishing, I was a hapless and very underconfident person. Not much has changed, but I went in the back door of publishing as a writer for hire.” She worked in genre joyfully, because she loved those books. Children don’t discriminate and categorize. “You can develop a type of writer’s amnesia. Not that you’ve lost your present, and your past, but your future.” Her 48th book with her editor. Thanks to David (her editor) for giving me back my voice. (She has not thanked her agent. Does she have one?)
While wandering around the ballroom in search of quotes (and observing Leon Neyfakh’s fine method of collecting quotes from people while standing near the restrooms), I ran into Pat Strachan, who had edited Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping. I remain convinced that Robinson can win tonight. But Strachan expressed a few doubts. In fact, a number of people I’ve talked with tonight seem to doubt that Robinson can win. Of course, we’ll know soon enough in the next hour.
In any event, being a bit of a Robinson geek, I had to ask Strachan about how exactly she edited Housekeeping. She told me that the manuscript was more or less as is, and that there were minor changes. “What kind of changes?” I asked. Not much apparently. Just a few words for clarification.
Some authors are just that good.
(This podcast is part of our 2008 National Book Awards coverage. Keep checking this category for details.)
Who is the Correspondent Talking With? Richard Howard
What’s Going On? In a noisy tableau, our young, roving correspondent hopes to get some answers about the craft of poetry from Richard Howard.
National Book Awards Podcast #6: Richard Howard (Download MP3)
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Outside the ballroom.
“Are you nervous?”
“Actually, I’m here because of my wife.”
“Moral support then?”
“You could call it that.”
“Was it a big surprise for her to be nominated?”
“Well, actually she had the support of many librarians.”
“So she expected it.”
“It was an honor for her to be nominated.”
“And how about you? Are you holding up okay?”
“It’s getting cold. I have to go back inside.”