Rocker Patti Smith wins National Book Award for nonfiction; Jaimy Gordon wins in fiction

Smith wins in nonfiction for her Robert Mapplethorpe memoir. Jaimy Gordon wins fiction prize.

November 18, 2010 at 4:08AM
(The Minnesota Star Tribune)
(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The National Book Award winners were announced Wednesday night in New York City.

Rocker Patti Smith won the nonfiction prize for "Just Kids," a poignant memoir of her lover and friend Robert Mapplethorpe, set in New York from the late 1960s, when the two met, until 1989, when Mapplethorpe died.
Said a tearful Smith at the awards dinner at Cipriani Wall Street: "I have loved books all my life. There is nothing more beautiful in our material world than the book."

In fiction, the prize went to Jaimy Gordon for the novel "Lord of Misrule," set in the world around a small-town horse track in West Virginia in 1970. It is Gordon's fourth novel.

The fiction category included Karen Tei Yamashita's "I Hotel," published by Minneapolis-based Coffee House Press. Other fiction finalists included Peter Carey ("Parrot and Olivier in America"), Lionel Shriver ("So Much for That"). and Nicole Krauss ("Great House"). Krauss appeared in the Twin Cities in late October as part of the Talking Volumes series.

The poetry prize went to Terrance Hayes for "Lighthead." Hayes teaches creative writing at Carnegie Mellon and lives in Pittsburgh.

In young people's literature, the winner was "Mockingbird," by Kathryn Erskine.

Though Yamashita didn't take home the fiction prize, Allan Kornblum, publisher of Coffee House, said he was delighted that her book was a finalist. "Discovering and championing her work of 20 years has been one of the highlights of my career as an editor and publisher," he said Wednesday from New York, where he attended the awards dinner. "I also believe this award makes an important statement about the rich diversity of the American experience in an era when intolerance is trying to make a comeback.

Terrance Hayes reading from "Lighthead."



about the writer

about the writer

claudepeck

More from No Section

card image

Livestream on startribune.com: Arizona State commit Jack Butterworth and the Skippers take on the Hornets starting at 4 p.m.