For Young People’s Literature, M.T. Anderson reads from The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party (Candlewick Press); for Poetry, James McMichael reads from Capacity (Farrar, Straus & Giroux); for Nonfiction, Taylor Branch reads from At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-1968 (Simon & Schuster); and for Fiction, Mark Z. Danielewski reads from Only Revolutions (Pantheon).

For Young People’s Literature, Nancy Werlin reads from The Rules of Survival (Dial/Penguin); for Poetry, H.L. Hix reads from Chromatic (Etruscan Press); for Nonfiction, Rajiv Chandrasekaran reads from Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone (Alfred A. Knopf); and for Fiction, Ken Falfus reads from A Disorder Peculiar to the Country (Ecco/HarperCollins).

For Young People’s Literature, Patricia McCormick reads from Sold (Hyperion Books for Children); for Poetry, Ben Lerner reads from Angle of Yaw (Copper Canyon Press); for Nonfiction, Timothy Egan reads from The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl (Houghton Mifflin); and for Fiction, Richard Powers reads from The Echo Maker (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).

For Young People’s Literature, Martine Leavitt reads from Keturah and Lord Death (Front Street Books/Boyd Mills Press); for Poetry, Nathaniel Mackey reads from Splay Anthem (New Directions); for Nonfiction, Lawrence Wright, who could not attend, had George Packer reading from The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Alfred A. Knopf); and for Fiction, Jess Walter reads from The Zero (Judith Regan Books/Harper Collins).

In the first group, for Young People’s Literature, Gene Luen Yang reads from American Born Chinese (First Second/Roaring Book Press/Holtzbrinck); for Poetry, the editor for Louise Glück (she was absent) reads from Averno (Farrar, Straus & Giroux); for Nonfiction, Peter Hessler reads from Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China’s Past and Present (HarperCollins); and for Fiction, Dana Spiotta reads from Eat the Document (Scribner/Simon & Schuster).

Poet Mark Doty presented the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters to Adrienne Rich. David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, presented the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community to Robert Silvers and, posthumously, Barbara Epstein, co-founders of The New York Review of Books. Author Fran Lebowitz was the host.

The National Book Awards, which is presented by the National Book Foundation, was hosted by Fran Lebowitz.

Young People’s Literature: M.T. Anderson for Octavian Nothing (Candlewick Press)

Poetry: Nathaniel Mackey for Splay Anthem (New Directions)

Nonfiction: Timothy Egan for The Worst Hard Time (Houghton Mifflin)

Fiction: Richard Powers for The Echo Maker (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Photos courtesy of Lorenzo Ciniglio.

This year’s luncheon focused on politics and featured host Lynn Sherr, television journalist and author of Outside the Box: A Memoir; Pat Buchanan, the self-described “populist conservative” and author of his new book, State of Emergency: How Illegal Immigration is Destroying America; Ariana Huffington, author of On Becoming Fearless: Advice for Women; Frank Rich, New York Times columnist and author of The Greatest Story Ever Sold: Bush’s America from “Mission Accomplished” to “Heckuva Job, Brownie”; and Andrew Sullivan, blogger, journalist, pundit, self-named “South Park Republican” and author of The Conservative Soul: How We Lost it, How to Get it Back. Stick around for a gloves-off debate on politics, upcoming elections and President Bush’s legacy.

This first podcast features an interview with Mary Beth Roche, publisher for Audio Renaissance and the past president of the APA, and Anthony Goff, chair of the APA Conference, and associate publisher of Hachette Audio and Digital Media, which is sponsoring these bonus podcasts. Upcoming APAC podcasts include:

• Publishers Tools for New Technology
• Big Picture Thinking for the Future of Audio
• Heard Word: BEA’s Audiobook & Author Tea

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