Minnesota publisher, poet win book awards

Tom Wallace, Star Tribune

Emilie Buchwald, of Milkweed Editions, is a McKnight foundations 2002 Distinquished artist award winner.

Last update: March 7, 2008 - 7:16 PM

Minnesota presses were well-represented during National Book Critics Circle Award ceremonies Thursday night in New York City. Emilie Buchwald, founder and publisher emeritus of Milkweed Editions in Minneapolis, received the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, and Mary Jo Bang, published by Graywolf Press in St. Paul, won the award for poetry.

Bang's "Elegy," written as she mourned the death of her adult son, was praised as "musically virtuosic, fearlessly revealing, and achingly sad." Author Ken Kalfus, who introduced Buchwald, lauded her legacy of more than 1 million books in print, including the "massive contract" she bestowed upon him.

Other winners:

Fiction: "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," by Junot Diaz (Riverhead).

General nonfiction: "Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present," by Harriet Washington (Doubleday).

Autobiography: "Brother, I'm Dying," by Edwidge Danticat (Knopf).

Biography: "Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer," by Tim Jeal (Yale).

Criticism: "The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century," by Alex Ross, (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

A full list of finalists is at www.bookcritics.org.

SARAH T. WILLIAMS

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Here are some of Books Editor Laurie Hertzel's favorite sites and blogs. Got a literary link to share? E-mail Laurie.

Talk of the Stacks An author series from the Library Foundation of Hennepin County.
Poets & Writers The website for Poets and Writers Magazine--podcasts, author interviews, and writing resources.
Creative Writing A place to keep apprised of writing competitions in the United States.
Gather Minnesota Readers The Website for Minnesota Public Radio's books blog.
The Loft Literary Center The Website for the Loft, a local place for writers and readers.
Good Reads A way to track what you're reading, and what your friends are reading.
Lost Manuscripts Just what it sounds like - a blog (sporadically updated) devoted to missing and destroyed manuscripts.
Maud Newton Very hip, reviews, links, a little attitude.
bookreporter.com A plethora of online book reviews and reading guides.
Rain Taxi Rain Taxi Review of Books.