NEW YORK (AP) — Isabel Wilkerson s “Caste,” an acclaimed biography of Malcolm X and fiction by Martin Amis and the late Randall Kenan are among this year s finalists for National
NBCC Awards Finalists Announced Jan 24, 2021
On January 24, the National Book Critics Circle announced 30 finalists in six categories for its annual awards honoring the best books of the previous publishing year. The finalists were named at a virtual make-up ceremony celebrating the winners of last year s awards; although the winners were previously announced, last year s ceremony was canceled due to the pandemic.
In addition, finalists for the 2020 John Leonard Prize for Best First Book were announced, and winners were named for the $1,000 Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing and the Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement. The winner of the Balakian Citation, recognizing outstanding work by a member of the NBCC, is the
November 29, 1976 – August 28, 2020
Actor, director, and playwright Chadwick Boseman skyrocketed into the spotlight with his role as Jackie Robinson in the 2013 film
42. He went on to star as James Brown (
Get On Up, 2014) and Thurgood Marshall (
Marshall, 2017), and then became an icon in his own right with his 2018 portrayal of T’Challa in
Black Panther the first Black Marvel superhero. Boseman credited his work ethic to his Anderson, South Carolina, upbringing, and told
G&G in a 2017 interview, “the Southern part of me is always going to come out. It doesn’t matter where you live, or where you’ve been, there’s certain stuff you keep.”
Relatives and relative strangers. A vicious virus united us with a prevailing sense of loss. It got to the point when we cringed every time the phone rang or we turned on the television, fearing that there would be news of yet another person passing away. This year has seen the deaths of legends and loved ones alike. Many across the country, and close to home, were claimed by COVID-19, while others succumbed to the ravages of illness or time. Others were children who barely had time to make their marks in this world.
As a rough year ends, The Sacramento OBSERVER takes a minute to reflect and acknowledge some of the many Blacks who died in 2020. They are gone, but not forgotten.
Among the big local stories in the book world:
• The publication of Wilmington s Lie by New York Times writer David Zucchino, the first history of Wilmington s 1898 violence from a national publishing house. (Atlantic Monthly Press). Zucchino didn t discover 1898; lots of others have written about what s been described as the only successful coup in American history., notably LeRae Umfleet in A Day of Blood. (Not to mention Philip Gerard s novel Cape Fear Rising. ) Yet Zucchino put the incident in a national context and raised issues just as the Black Lives Matter movement was dawning.
• The literary community remained vibrant, with a number of local authors published by mainstream national presses. Among the year s major titles: Leave It As It Is, UNCW professor David Gessner s look at Theodore Roosevelt as environmentalist; Sword of the Seven Sins, Emily Colin s dystopian young adult novel;; Rock Force, former reporter Kevin Maurer s account of the American retaki