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April 1-15, 2005 Edition
Book Critics
Announce
2004 Winners
NEW YORK, NY/03/18/05The National Book Critics Circle has announced its 2004 award winners.
Marilynne Robinson has earned the fiction award for Gilead (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
Gilead is about 76-year old John Ames, a third-generation preacher who is terminally ill with heart disease. In Gilead, Iowa in 1956, he writes a letter to the 7 year old son he barely knows, imparting accounts of his life and lessons learned.
Other award winners include: Nonfiction, Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation: A History (Viking); Biography/Autobiography, Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan, DeKooning: An American Master (Knopf);
Poetry, Adrienne Rich, The School Among the Ruins (Norton); Criticism, Patrick Neate, Where You’re At: Notes from the Frontline of a Hip-Hop Planet (Riverhead); Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, Louis D. Rubin, Jr., founder of Algonquin Press and author and editor of more than 50 books; Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, David Orr, a contributor to the New York Times Book Review and Poetry magazine.
The Book Critics Circle, founded in 1974, comprises nearly 700 book reviewers interested in honoring quality writing and communication with each other about common concerns.
One of its main missions is to annual present awards for the best book in five categories. The 2004 awards were announced at a ceremony March 18 in New York City.
