Four Southern Californian authors were named as finalists for the 2014 National Book Awards. The National Book Foundation announced 20 shortlisted books across four categories on NPR’s Morning Edition Wednesday.
The finalists were UC Riverside professor Fred Moten (“The Feel Trio”) and Pomona College professor Claudia Rankine (“Citizen: An American Lyric”) for Poetry; Los Angeles-native John Lahr (“Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh”) for Nonfiction; and John Corey Whaley (“Noggin”) — who currently resides in Southern California — for Young People’s Literature.
Lahr and Whaley took to Twitter to express excitement over the news, with Whaley commenting “Losing my head here. Losing. My. Head.” in reference to the plot of his shortlisted novel about a teenager’s cryogenically frozen head.
DEPARTMENT OF WOW: “Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh” a finalist for this year’s National Book Award.
— John Lahr (@JohnLahrwriter) October 15, 2014
The winners will be announced in a ceremony Nov. 19.
— Colleen Park