The National Book Foundation celebrated it's 50th Anniversary of the National Book Awards in grand style on November 17th in New York City. More than 1,000 representatives of the literary world, including authors, publishers, booksellers and journalists attended the gala raising over $1.7 million for the non-profit organization, the most in its history. As a way to round out the century, the NBF invited all prior NBA recipients to attend this year's ceremony. Among those in attendance were E. Annie Proulx, David McCullough, Toni Morrison, Alice McDermott, Gloria Naylor, William MeredithandCharles Johnson.
Actor, author, playwright and veritable funny-man, Steve Martin served as Master of Ceremonies for the evening adding his unique brand of Hollywood humor to the festivities. Martin encouraged the winners of the National Book Awards to do what the actors at the Academy Awards do: rush to the stage before the applause dies down. In one of the evenings funnier moments, Martin teased an award winner who claimed to have not prepared a speech because she didn't think she'd win, but came on stage with one anyway. "You didn't expect to win and yet you wrote a speech," said Martin.
Receiving an honorary 50th Anniversary Gold Medal for her outstanding contribution to books and reading was actress, producer and talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, who described herself as "giddy" and in "awe" of the presence of so many great authors. Winfrey's monthly Book Club selections have not only led to astounding book sales and made brand names of somewhat more obscure authors, but have created an infectious love of fiction and reading "the word."
Young People's Literature
Kimberly Willis Holt, When Zachary Beaver Came to Town (Henry Holt and Company)
Nonfiction
John W. Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (W. W. Norton & Company/ The New Press
P try
Ai, Vice: New & Selected P ms(W. W. Norton & Company)
Fiction
Ha Jin, Waiting (Pantheon Books)
The National Book Foundation 50th Anniversary Gold Medal Awarded to:
Oprah Winfrey
