2006 National Book Awards

THE FOLLOWING BOOKS have been shortlisted for the 2006 National Book Awards for Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry. A surprising list indeed because almost all the big names of contemporary American literature were excluded, most notably Cormac McCarthy, Alice McDermott, Claire Messud and Philip Roth.

Fiction
1. Only Revolutions (2006) / Mark Z. Danielewski
2. A Disorder Peculiar to the Country (2006) / Ken Kalfus
3. The Echo Maker (2006) / Richard Powers
4. Eat the Document (2006) / Dana Spiotta
5. The Zero (2006) / Jess Walter

Poetry
1. Averno (2006) / Louise Glück
2. Chromatic (2006) / H.L. Hix
3. Angle of Yaw (2006) / Ben Lerner
4. Splay Anthem (2006) / Nathaniel Mackey
5. Capacity (2006) / James McMichael

Nonfiction
1. At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 (2006) / Taylor Branch
2. Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone (2006) / Rajiv Chandrasekaran
3. The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl (2006) / Timothy Egan
4. Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China’s Past and Present (2005) / Peter Hessler
5. The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (2006) / Lawrence Wright

The winners will be announced on November 15, 2006