Strong Showing for Norton on the NBA Longlist
As publisher of 3 of the 10 titles on the National Book Awards longlist announced today, W.W. Norton is tied with the much larger Random House for number of titles. They are also one of two independent publishers represented on the list; the other is Atlantic Monthly Press, with one title. (Full bibliographic information for all the titles is available on our downloadable spreadsheet, Nat’l Book Awards – Nonfiction Longlist).
As NPR’s All Things Considered noted on Monday, the National Book Awards “have been criticized for nominating obscure authors whose books don’t sell as well as winners of the Pulitzer Prize or the Man Booker Prize.” None of the titles on this year’s nonfiction longlist would be considered esoteric, but few of them have received much attention to date. The most well-known is probably Lawrence Wright’s investigation into Scientology, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright, (RH/Knopf).
In an attempt to steer away from “obscure authors,” notes NPR, the judging panels have added “nonwriters, including librarians and book sellers.” However, only one bookseller is on a panel; Rick Simonson of Seattle’s Elliott Bay bookstore on the fiction panel. The sole librarian is Lisa Von Drasek, curator of the Children’s Literature Research Collections of the University of Minnesota (and EarlyWord Kids Contributor).
The full longlist, with annotations and links to reviews, is on the Book Beast web site. The fiction longlist will be announced tomorrow morning.