To many in attendance at the National Book Awards, Peter Matthiessen’s win in fiction was a surprise, and Random House is scrambling to meet demand. Although NBA winners don’t always equal big sales for publishers, Random is currently out of stock on Shadow Country, which the Modern Library imprint released in hardcover in April.

The 2008 National Book Awards ceremony was held Wednesday night at Cipriani on Wall Street in downtown New York City. Cipriani was a new location for the awards. Host Eric Bogosian opened the ceremony by noting that Barack Obama’s win in the Presidential election is good news for many, including those attending the awards ceremony because he “is a reader and a writer.” Obama’s election was, in fact, a recurring theme among the evening speakers.

The 2008 National Book Awards ceremony was held Wednesday night at Cipriani on Wall Street in downtown New York City. Cipriani was a new location for the awards. Host Eric Bogosian opened the ceremony by noting that Barack Obama’s win in the Presidential election is good news for many, including those attending the awards ceremony because he “is a reader and a writer.” Obama’s election was, in fact, a recurring theme among the evening speakers.

The 2008 National Book Awards ceremony was held Wednesday night at Cipriani on Wall Street in downtown New York City. Cipriani was a new location for the awards. Host Eric Bogosian opened the ceremony by noting that Barack Obama’s win in the Presidential election is good news for many, including those attending the awards ceremony because he “is a reader and a writer.” Obama’s election was, in fact, a recurring theme among the evening speakers.

The ghost of Norman Mailer, who died November 10, seemed to preside over the 58th annual National Book Awards, held November 14 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City’s Times Square. Indeed, this year’s gala awards ceremony was marked by the oddly appropriate combination of an unruly picketline of strikers outside the hotel and the many heartfelt tributes by NBA award-winners to Mailer’…

Denis Johnson’s bulging and brilliant Vietnam War novel Tree of Smoke, published by FSG, was awarded the National Book Award for fiction at this year’s gala awards ceremony at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. The nonfiction award went to Tim Weiner’s damning examination of American intelligence policy, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA from Doubleday.

Turning to the Young People’s Literature category of the National Book Awards, the finalists include three hard-hitting coming-of-age novels, two of them set within minority communities; one fantasy; and an illustrated book with a strong fantasy component.

Taking a look at Nonfiction for the next installment of our pre-National Book Awards coverage, of the five NBA finalists this year, PW gave stars to three and named two to our 2007 Best Books list.

Continuing our pre-National Book Awards coverage—and if you still haven’t voted in our poll, there’s no time like the present—we’re looking at the poetry finalists today. For the most part, the contenders are big names in the poetry world.

As part of our coverage leading up to the National Book Awards on November 14th–and don’t forget to cast your vote in our poll–PW’s reviews editors are taking a close look at the finalists in their respective catagories. Today it’s fiction. The five finalists in fiction this year range from big names who’ve written career masterpieces to budding debut authors.