National Book Awards: Continuing a tradition

'We don't just hand out awards'

Arthur Miller is being honored at Wednesday night's National Book Awards.

By Jamie Allen
CNN

(CNN) -- The 2001 National Book Awards are scheduled for Wednesday night at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York.

But there was a time shortly after the September 11 World Trade Center attack rocked New York when Neil Baldwin, executive director of the National Book Foundation, thought that it might not take place.

A board meeting was called and officials with the foundation, which has been handing out one of literature's top prizes for 52 years, finally decided the show must go on.

"The fact of the matter is this is the 52nd National Book Awards, and when something has been going on for half a century, you have to think about the fact that you're responsible for that and you just can't let it drop even though these are horrendous circumstances," said Baldwin.

The attacks, however, have caused a drop in attendance at the $1,000-a-plate dinner and ceremony -- it's down by at least a fifth this year, and that could hurt the foundation's operating budget, Baldwin says.

"Our revenues are down about 20 percent from prior years," Baldwin said.

Benefiting charity

The program has been changed, too. It's still being hosted by comic/actor/author Steve Martin, and awards in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and children's literature will be handed out.

Jonathan Franzen's book "The Corrections" is one of the nominees for the National Book Award in the fiction category.

But the event will also feature a silent auction of original children's book art. Proceeds will benefit the Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund, designed to help those in the food service business who were victims of September 11.

"We wanted to do something to respond to or acknowledge the tragedy," Baldwin said. "We don't just hand out awards."

Baldwin said Martin, now in his third year hosting the awards, would offer a unique balance to the ceremony. He'll work in his trademark humor, but the author of "Shopgirl" will also give a sober commentary to the proceedings.

"He's very precise and a highly professional and serious person to work with," said Baldwin. "He knows exactly what he wants to say."

Honoring Miller

Also on the agenda: Arthur Miller, whose plays include "Death of a Salesman" and "The Crucible," will receive the foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

"His name has been on the list for a couple of years now," said Baldwin. "He's America's greatest living playwright and one of the playwrights of modern times."

Lost in the shuffle of the hectic weeks leading up to the event is the fact that the awards are being held on the 150th anniversary of the publication date of Herman Melville's "Moby Dick." Baldwin said there are works being honored Wednesday night that might one day hold a similar place in literary history -- but we might not know it yet.

"The Noonday Demon" is nominated in the nonfiction category.

"When 'Moby Dick' was published, it sold about 300 copies," Baldwin said. "I mean, literary excellence doesn't always leap up in front of you. Sometimes time and history are necessary."

Here's a look at the nominees in each category:

Young People's Literature Kate DiCamillo, "The Tiger Rising" (Candlewick Press) Phillip Hoose, "We Were There Too! Young People in U.S. History" (Melanie Kroupa Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux) An Na, "A Step from Heaven" (Front Street) Marilyn Nelson, "Carver: A Life in Poems" (Front Street) Virginia Euwer Wolff, "True Believer: A Novel in the Make Lemonade Trilogy" (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)

Fiction Dan Chaon, "Among the Missing" (Ballantine Books) Jennifer Egan, "Look at Me" (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday) Louise Erdrich, "The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse" (HarperCollins Publishers) Jonathan Franzen, "The Corrections" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Susan Straight, "Highwire Moon" (Houghton Mifflin Company)

Poetry Agha Shahid Ali, "Rooms Are Never Finished" (W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.) Wanda Coleman, "Mercurochrome" (Black Sparrow Press) Alan Dugan, "Poems Seven: New and Complete Poetry" (Seven Stories Press) Cornelius Eady, "Brutal Imagination" (A Marian Wood Book/G.P. Putnam's Sons) Gail Mazur, "They Can't Take That Away From Me" (The University of Chicago Press)

Nonfiction Marie Arana, "American Chica: Two Worlds, One Childhood" (The Dial Press) Nina Bernstein, "The Lost Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care" (Pantheon Books) David James Duncan, "My Story As Told By Water" (Sierra Club Books) Jan T. Gross, "Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland" (Princeton University Press) Andrew Solomon, "The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression" (Simon & Schuster)