2008 National Book Award Winners Announced

Posted on November 21, 2008

The winners of the 2008 National Book Awards have been announced. The New York Times says the night gave a nod to history. Annette Gordon-Reed's was the nonfiction winner. Her book, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family was based on extensive research of three generations of a slave family owned by Thomas Jefferson. Peter Matthiessen won in fiction but his novel, Shadow Country, contained research of a "a 19th century ruthless cane farmer in Florida who was said to be a serial killer."

Here's the list of the winners.

Fiction: Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country (Modern Library)
Nonfiction: Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (W.W. Norton & Company)
Poetry: Mark Doty, Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems (HarperCollins)
Young People's Literature: Judy Blundell, What I Saw and How I Lied (Scholastic)

You can see a list of all of the finalists here.