The National Book Foundation, which oversees the National Book Awards, has announced the judges for the 2014 awards. A group of five judges has been selected for each of the four categories the NBF delivers awards in: fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people's literature. The judges will announce a longlist of 10 titles in each category on September 10, and then 20 finalists from that longlist will be named on October 15. The NBA awards ceremony will then take place on November 19. Chairing the fiction panel is Geraldine Brooks; Alan Taylor is chairing the nonfiction panel; Roberto Polito the poetry panel; and Sharon M. Draper, the young people's literature panel. The full list of judges is:
Fiction panel: Geraldine Brooks (author of March); Sheryl Cotleur (a bookseller); Michael Gorra (author of Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece); Adam Johnson (author of The Orphan Master’s Son); and Lily Tuck (author of The News from Paraguay)
Nonfiction panel: Robert Atwan (editor of The Best American Essays series); Gretel Ehrlich (author of Facing the Wave: A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami); Tom Reiss (author of The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo); Ruth J. Simmons (former president of Brown University); and Alan Taylor (author of William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early Republic)
Poetry panel: Eileen Myles (author of The Importance of Being Iceland); Katie Peterson (author of This One Tree); Rowan Ricardo Phillips (author of The Ground); Robert Polito (author of Hollywood & God); and Paisley Rekdal (author of The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee)
Young People's Literature panel: Sharon M. Draper (an educator and author of Copper Sun); Starr LaTronica (president of the Association for Library Services to Children); Dave Shallenberger (co-owner of Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, Ga.); Sherri L. Smith (author of Flygirl); and Rebecca Stead (author of Liar & Spy)
Publishers looking to submit books for consideration can now access entry forms from the NBF's website.
