The National Book Awards Shortlist has been announced and wouldn’t you know, many of the authors honored have work in JSTOR. We opened up these links so that you can download the PDFs here for free!
Robert A. Caro was awarded the medal for distinguished contribution to American letters—the National Book Awards’ version of a lifetime achievement honor—for his 37-year devotion to a biography of Lyndon B. Johnson. Here he is writing about a young woman who enrolled in the University of Alabama in 1965 and inadvertently caused a riot that restored racial segregation.
From The Fiction Short List:
Chris Bachelder‘s wry short “Letter to a Young Teacher” will make teachers and writers alike chuckle.
Paulette Jiles wrote poetry before her acclaimed novels; here is her poem “Tornado.”
Colson Whitehead revealed what his writing process is like in an interview with BOMB magazine.
Jacqueline Woodson, nominated this year for an adult novel, has in fact most often written for children, as this profile reveals.
From The Nonfiction Short List:
Viet Thanh Nguyen considered what it means to write about Viet Nam.
From The Poetry Short List:
Daniel Borzutsky‘s poem “The Trouble With Strangers.”
Rita Dove‘s poem “November for Beginners.”
Peter Gizzi‘s poem “Handheld.”
Jay Hopler‘s poem “Solar Paraphrase.”
From the Young People’s Literature Short List:
John Lewis is nominated for his graphic novel about the Civil Rights Movement.
