National Book Awards, the NBA All-Stars

I'm not a sports fan, but even I know what the names Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan have in common: they're all NBA stars.

What if I asked you that question about these three: Nelson Algren, Denis Johnson and Sherman Alexie? Surprise, surprise – the answer's the same. They might not have much of a foul shot average, but they're NBA standouts all the same--National Book Award winners, that is. (In 1950, Nelson Algren became the first recipient of the NBA prize for fiction for his The Man With the Golden Arm; Denis Johnson took home the Fiction trophy in 2007 for Tree of Smoke; Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian received the prize for Young People's Literature the same year.)

In March of 1950, a gathering of publishers, editors, writers and critics presented the first annual National Book Awards to honor the year's best in American fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Since then the NBA has made a reputation for itself, acknowledging writers who helped shape American literature: William Faulkner, Saul Bellow, Rachel Carson, Ralph Ellison, Cormac McCarthy, and Philip Roth, to name a few.

The NBA expanded its scope during the mid-sixties and through the seventies, adding new award categories for Science, Philosophy and Religion, Arts and Letters, and more. In 1980, the NBA was replaced by The American Book Awards (TABA). In an attempt to honor an even wider range of writers, TABA gave a total of twenty-eight prizes in sixteen categories (recognizing a hardcover and paperback winner in twelve).

It got a little crazy. By 1984, the board decided to reduce the number of categories back to the original three, and in 1987 TABA was dropped and the NBA reestablished. For the past twelve years, the National Book Foundation has named winners in four categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature.

You might want to check out the NBA's website at http://www.nationalbook.org/. There you'll find everything you ever wanted to know about the awards, even the winners' acceptance speeches and podcasts of recent events. The site offers readings and interviews with a number of authors, and a section in which famous writers reminisce about books that changed their lives. The "Innovations in Reading" feature highlights ways different individuals and organizations encourage people to read good books. And there's the requisite blog as well as links to other sites of interest.

The National Book Foundation, sponsor of the NBA, states their mission: "To celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America." With its focus on awards given by writers to writers, the NBA has helped advance the careers of emerging authors, thereby giving much to readers as well.

Looking at the long list of winners over the years, I find myself singing the bibliophile's refrain, "So many books, so little time." Between winners and nominees, the NBA hall of fame showcases more than half a century of the best of the America's writers, and it's hard to know where to begin. In the unlikely even you're on top of the game and have already read through the whole list, you can take heart: we have only to wait until November when this year's winners are announced. Will LeBron James take home a trophy?