NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� his explicit and surprisingly resilient memoir about his brutal stabbing in 2022, is a nominee for the National Book Awards. Canada's Anne Carson, one of the world's most revered poets, was cited for her latest collection, 鈥淲rong Norma.鈥�
which presents the awards, released long lists of 10 Thursday for nonfiction and poetry. The foundation announced the lists for young people's literature and books in translations earlier in the week and will reveal the fiction nominees on Friday. Judges will narrow the lists to five in each category on Oct. 1, and winners will be announced during a Manhattan dinner ceremony on Nov. 20.
Rushdie, 77, has been a literary star since the 1981 publication of 鈥淢idnight's Children鈥� and unwittingly famous since the 1988 release of 鈥淭he Satanic Verses" and the death decree issued by Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for the novel's alleged blasphemy. But 鈥淜nife鈥� brings him his first National Book Award nomination; he was a British citizen, based in London, for and other works and would have been ineligible for the NBAs. Rushdie has been a U.S. citizen since 2016.
Besides 鈥淜nife,鈥� the nonfiction list includes explorations of faith, identity, oppression, global resources and outer space, among them Hanif Abdurraqib's 鈥淭here鈥檚 Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension,鈥� Rebecca Boyle's 鈥淥ur Moon: How Earth鈥檚 Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are鈥� and Jason De Le贸n's 鈥淪oldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling.鈥�
The other nonfiction nominees were: Eliza Griswold's 鈥淐ircle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church,鈥� Kate Manne's 鈥淯nshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia,鈥� Ernest Scheyder's 鈥淭he War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives," Richard Slotkin's 鈥淎 Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America,鈥� Deborah Jackson Taffa's 鈥淲hiskey Tender" and Vanessa Ang茅lica Villarreal's 鈥淢agical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders.鈥�
Along with Carson's 鈥淲rong Norma,鈥� poetry nominees include Pulitzer Prize winner Dianne Seuss' latest, 鈥淢odern Poetry"; Fady Joudah's elliptically titled 鈥�(...)鈥�; Dorianne Laux's 鈥淟ife on Earth鈥�; Gregory Pardlo's 鈥淪pectral Evidence鈥�; and Rowan Ricardo Phillips' 鈥淪ilver.鈥�
Others on the poetry list were Octavio Quintanilla's 鈥淭he Book of Wounded Sparrows,鈥� m.s. RedCherries' 鈥渕other,鈥� Lena Khalaf Tuffaha's 鈥淪omething About Living鈥� and Elizabeth Willis' 鈥淟iontaming in America.鈥�
Hillel Italie, The Associated Press
