The late New York Times journalist Anthony Shadid and his personal history "House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East" are among the National Book Awards finalists announced Tuesday.
Shadid (left), who died of an Asthma attack while covering political uprisings in Syria earlier this year, will vie for the non-fiction honor with previous winner Robert Caro, nominated for his magisterial "The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 4," and New Yorker writer Katherine Boo, recognized for her account of life in the Indian slums in "Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity." Also nominated are Anne Applebaum's "Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945-1956" and Domingo Martinez's "The Boy Kings of Texas."
In the fiction category, Pulitizer Prize winner Junot Díaz has been nominated for his short story collection "This Is How You Lose Her" along with two other staples of the New York Times Bestseller List — Dave Eggers for his look at a struggling American businessman in Saudi Arabia in "A Hologram for the King" and Louise Erdrich for her account of a brutal crime on an Indian reservation in "The Round House."
Also nominated in the fiction race are Ben Fountain for "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" and Kevin Powers for his Iraq war novel, "The Yellow Birds."
The winners will be announced on Nov. 14, so start your office betting pools.
Other nominees include young people's literature authors William Alexander, "Goblin Secrets"; Carrie Arcos, "Out of Reach"; Patricia McCormick, "Never Fall Down"; Eliot Schrefer, "Endangered"; and Steve Sheinkin, "Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon."
And, sexiest of all, the poetry finalists: David Ferry, "Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations"; Cynthia Huntington, "Heavenly Bodies"; Tim Seibles, "Fast Animal"; Alan Shapiro, "Night of the Republic"; and Susan Wheeler, "Meme."
