Yaddo Authors Among National Book Award Finalists

(October 14, 2005) - Two Yaddo authors – Mary Gaitskill and Alan Burdick – join John Ashbery, a Member of The Corporation of Yaddo, as finalists for 2005 National Book Awards.

Ms. Gaitskill is a nominee in the fiction category for her novel Veronica, the story of the complicated friendship between a young fashion model and an unattractive older woman dying of AIDS. Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion, Mr. Burdick’s account of the global movement of exotic species and how we ultimately change our world, is nominated in the nonfiction category. Mr. Ashbery is a nominee for his poetry collection Where Shall I Wander.

The 20 finalists for the prestigious awards were announced Wednesday. They were chosen by a panel of four judges who reviewed an unprecedented 1,195 entries submitted by publishers. Winners will receive a bronze statue and $10,000; each finalist receives $1,000 and a bronze medal. Garrison Keillor will host a November 16 awards ceremony in New York City where the winners will be announced.

Mr. Ashbery is a previous winner of the National Book Award, for his 1975 poetry collection Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror. For a list of other Yaddo writers who have received a National Book Award, click here.