Book Awards | featured news

Don DeLillo, the celebrated novelist who once complained that as a young writer he “lacked ambition,” has been named the first recipient of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. The new lifetime achievement award, announced Thursday by Librarian of Congress James Billington, will be presented at the 13th annual National Book Festival in September.

Author Claire Vaye Watkins was awarded the Story Prize in New York on Wednesday evening for her debut collection, "Battleborn." As winner she receives $20,000. Two finalists for the prize -- Dan Chaon for "Stay Awake" and Junot Diaz for "This Is How You Lose Her" -- will receive $5,000 each. The Story Prize is the most significant award in the U.S. dedicated to collections of short fiction.

Thomas Mallon's novel about the scandal that brought down Richard Nixon is a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award for fiction. Published by Random House Inc., Mallon's "Watergate" was among five nominees for the $15,000 award. Three other books announced Wednesday were published by smaller presses, as judges bypassed such high-profile works of fiction as Louise Erdrich's "The Round House" and Junot Diaz's "This Is How You Lose Her."

Yale University announced on Monday the inaugural winners of the Windham Campbell Prizes, which are given to writers for outstanding achievement in fiction, nonfiction and drama. Nine prizes of $150,000 each are to be awarded to James Salter, Zoë Wicomb and Tom McCarthy in fiction; Jonny Steinberg, Adina Hoffman and Jeremy Scahill in nonfiction; and Naomi Wallace, Stephen Adly Guirgis and Tarell Alvin McCraney in drama.

Mr. Caro won his third Book Critics Circule award for the fourth volume in his life of Lyndon B. Johnson... The National Book Critics Circle handed out its annual awards on Thursday night at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium, with an old hand among the winners.

Author Kevin Powers wins the Guardian First Book Award for his 'unforgettable first novel The Yellow Birds.

Shakar's novel "Luminarium," about the role technology and spirituality play in shaping people's reality, and Stephen King's "11/22/1963," about a time traveler who attempts to prevent John F. Kennedy's assassination, were among the winners Friday at the 32nd annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes.

There were plenty of surprises in the the shortlists for the 60th annual National Book Awards, which were announced today Portland, Oregon. The awards, probably the most prestigious book awards in the USA behind the Pulitzer Prize, have previously been given to Jonathan Franzen, Philip Roth, Alice Walker and William Faulkner.

A book chronicling a Chinese tragedy under Mao has won Britain's richest nonfiction book award, the Samuel Johnson Prize. Frank Dikotter's "Mao's Great Famine" won the 20,000 pound ($32,000) award at a ceremony in London on Wednesday.

American writer Michael Thomas wins the International Impac Dublin Literary Award - the world's most lucrative literary prize - for his debut novel.