Colum McCann, Dave Eggers Win Big at 60th Annual National Book Awards

Photo of Colum McCann by Brendan Bourke

Last night, at a black-tie ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City, the National Book Awards winners were announced for seven different literary categories. Satirist Andy Borowitz, who runs fake news website The Borowitz Report, emceed the event.

Phillip Hoose’s book Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice won in Young People’s Literature. T. J. Stiles won for his non-fiction book The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Keith Waldrop won for his collection of poetry, Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy.

Dave Eggers won the Literarian Award, Gore Vidal was honored for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and Flannery O’Connor posthumously won Best of the National Book Awards Fiction for her book, The Complete Stories.

One of the most anticipated categories, for best in fiction, went to Colum McCann, for his novel, Let the Great World Spin.

The awards dinner and ceremony will air in their entirety on Saturday, Nov. 21 and Sunday, Nov. 22 on C-SPAN 2’s Book TV.

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