National Book Awards | featured news

EL James's best seller Fifty Shades of Grey has been named popular fiction book of the year at the Specsavers National Book Awards in London. The erotic novelist beat competition from Kate Mosse, JoJo Moyes, Victoria Hislop, Bernard Cornwell and Dorothy Koomson to win the accolade. This year's Booker Prize winner, Hilary Mantel, was chosen as the UK author of the year for a second time.

Three novelists who've gained literary respect as well as commercial success — Junot Diaz, (This is How You Lose Her), Louise Erdrich (The Round House) and Dave Eggers (A Hologram for the King) — are among the finalists for the National Book Award for fiction announced Wednesday.

2011's National Book Award winners include "Salvage the Bones" about a family living through Hurricane Katrina and Stephen Greenblatt's "The Swerve: How the World Became Modern."

A week ago, Fort Collins author Lauren Myracle, whose young adult novels include the enormously successful "ttyl" series, was ecstatic to learn that her latest novel, "Shine," was on the short list for this year's prestigious National Book Award.

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.

Man Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel and National Book Award finalists Jayne Anne Phillips and Bonnie Jo Campbell were among the nominees announced Saturday night for the National Book Critics Circle prize. Other finalists include memoir writer Mary Karr, former U.S. poet laureate Louise Glueck and former National Book Award winner William T. Vollmann, cited by critics for his 1,300-plus-page "Imperial."