Two Yaddo Writers NBA Nominees

 

Saratoga Springs, NY (October 13, 2010) – Two Yaddo writers - Nicole Krauss and Monica Youn - are among the 20 finalists for the 2010 National Book Award, it was announced today at the childhood home of Flannery O'Connor in Savannah, Georgia.

Krauss is nominated for her novel Great House (W.W. Norton & Co., October 2010), the story of a stolen desk that contains secrets and becomes the obsession of the lives it touches. Youn is one of the poetry nominees, gaining a nod for her second collection, Ignatz (Four Way Books, March 2010), a group of poems inspired by the Krazy Kat comic strip.

The winner in each category – fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people's literature – will be announced at the 61st National Book Awards Benefit Dinner and Ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on Wednesday, November 17. Each of the winners will received $10,000 and a bronze statue; each finalist receives $1,000 and a bronze medal.

Given the site chosen for this announcement, it is interesting to note that a young Flannery O'Connor was at Yaddo in 1948 and 1949, working on portions of what would become her first published novel, Wise Blood.