2007 National Book Awards Week Begins November 12th

The National Book Foundation, which announced this year's National Book Awards Finalists on October 10^th, plans to celebrate the accomplishments of those finalists with a host of events set to begin on November 12^th.

Each year, the foundation chooses finalists for the National Book Awards in four different categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature. A panel of judges selects finalists from books submitted by publishers. The foundation then selects an Award Winner, which is scheduled to take place this year on November 14^th.

This year's finalists include Mischa Berlinkski, Lydia Davis, Joshua Ferris, Denis Johnson, and Jim Shepard in Fiction. Edwidge Denticat, Christopher Hitchens, Woody Holton, Arnold Rampersad, and Tim Weiner will compete for the Award in Nonfiction. In the Poetry category, finalists include Linda Gregerson, Robert Hass, David Kirby, Stanly Plumly, and Ellen Bryant Voigt. And for Young People's Literature, contenders for the Award include Sherman Alexie, Kathleen Duey, M. Sindy Felin, Brian Selznick, and Sara Zarr.

Besides the award dinner and ceremony, there are several events scheduled for this year's National Book Awards Week. All of the finalists will be giving a reading at The New School in New York on November 13^th. On that same day, the finalists for the Young People's Literature Award will be featured at the National Book Awards Teen Press Conference, which will be held at Donnell Public Library. And the week will begin with readings from this year's selection for the foundation's "5 Under 35," a special part of the week that allows previous Award Winners and Finalists to highlight the work of promising fiction writers.