Winner: Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin (Random House) - Interview

Finalists: Bonnie Jo Campbell, American Salvage (Wayne State University Press) - Interview
Daniyal Mueenuddin, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (W. W. Norton & Co.)
Jayne Anne Phillips, Lark and Termite (Alfred A. Knopf) - Interview
Marcel Theroux, Far North (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) - Interview

FICTION JUDGES: Alan Cheuse, Junot Díaz, Jennifer Egan,
Charles Johnson, Lydia Millet

Winner: T. J. Stiles, The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (Alfred A. Knopf) - Interview

Finalists: David M. Carroll, Following the Water: A Hydromancer's Notebook
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) - Interview
Sean B. Carroll, Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) - Interview
Greg Grandin, Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt) - Interview
Adrienne Mayor, The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy (Princeton University Press) - Interview

NONFICTION JUDGES: David Blight, Amanda Foreman, Steve Olson,
Camille Paglia, John Phillip Santos

Winner: Keith Waldrop, Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy
(University of California Press) - Interview

Finalists: Rae Armantrout, Versed (Wesleyan University Press) - Interview
Ann Lauterbach, Or to Begin Again (Penguin Books) - Interview
Carl Phillips, Speak Low (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) - Interview
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, Open Interval (University of Pittsburgh Press) - Interview

POETRY JUDGES: Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, A. Van Jordan,
Cole Swensen, Kevin Young

Winner: Phillip Hoose, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux) - Interview

Finalists: Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith
(Henry Holt) - Interview
David Small, Stitches (W. W. Norton & Co.) - Interview
Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic) - Interview
Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped (HarperTeen/HarperCollins)

YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE JUDGES: Kathi Appelt, Coe Booth,
Carolyn Coman, Nancy Werlin, Gene Luen Yang

DISTINGUISHED CONTRIBUTION TO AMERICAN LETTERS

Gore Vidal

LITERARIAN AWARD

Dave Eggers

2009 National Book Awards Dinner Master of Ceremonies

Andy Borowitz's Opening Monologue

(contains adult language)

Andy Borowitz is an author, comedian, satirist, and film actor. His work appears in The New Yorker, The Huffington Post and at his satirical website, BorowitzReport.com. He has received numerous awards for his writing, including the first-ever National Press Club Award for humor in 2004. He has written six humor books and is a two-time finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. He won the NAACP Image Award for creating the hit television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, starring Will Smith. He produced the Oscar-nominated film Pleasantville and wrote the upcoming Paramount motion picture Dinner for Schmucks, starring Steve Carell and Paul Rudd. He has made countless television and film appearances, including the Woody Allen film Melinda and Melinda. He is writing his first novel.