Maryland poet Lucille Clifton is among 20 finalists for the National Book Awards, it was announced yesterday.
"I just found out yesterday," Clifton said from her home in Columbia. "It is an honor. It's one of the most prestigious literary awards in the country."
Clifton was nominated for her book, "Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988-2000" (BOA Editions, Ltd.) "It's my 30th or 31st book, which includes 10 books of poetry," she said.
The book by the former poet laureate of Maryland was among 835 titles considered for awards by the National Book Foundation. Clifton, who teaches at St. Mary's College in southern Maryland, will find out along with the rest of the world on Nov. 15 whether she is among the winners.
The awards, given in four categories - fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people's literature - are sponsored by the nonprofit foundation. Winners receive $10,000, other finalists $1,000.
This is Clifton's second time as a finalist; she also has judged the awards.
And she continues to write. "If this is what you do, this is what you do," she said.
Clifton is in the company of some big names this year: Susan Sontag, Joyce Carol Oates and 92-year-old Jacques Barzun are also finalists.
Five authors were chosen in each of four categories. This year's list includes nine past nominees and two former winners, Oates and Galway Kinnell.
Science fiction author Ray Bradbury, never nominated in a competitive category, will receive a lifetime achievement medal. Winners will be announced at a ceremony in New York with actor and author Steve Martin returning as host.
In a year that featured acclaimed novels from Saul Bellow, Philip Roth and John Updike, the nominations for Sontag and Oates were surprising. Sontag's "In America" and Oates' "Blonde," each based on real-life actresses, received mixed reviews. Sontag also was criticized for the uncredited borrowing of passages from other sources.
"I don't think judges pay much attention to reviews. I've been a judge for many awards, and people have their own integrity and opinions," said Oates, a six-time nominee and winner in 1970 for the novel "Them."
The New York Times' Michiko Kakutani panned Oates' "Blonde," a long psychological novel about Marilyn Monroe, calling it "the book equivalent of a tacky television mini-series." She also thought poorly of "In America," based on the 19th-century stage performer Helena Modjeska. Kakutani found it "a banal, flat-footed narrative."
