- Graywolf Press
The 2014 National Book Awards were a shitshow—yes, there was Ursula K. Le Guin’s beautiful tirade against Amazon, but then there was Daniel Handler’s pretty racist “joke,” and a huge snub in the poetry category. Rather than awarding Claudia Rankine’s incredibly timely, structurally innovative, literally I can’t say anything bad about it book Citizen, the NBA judges went with Louise Glück’s Faithful and Virtuous Night, which is actually as boring, stylistically, as the title suggests.
Faithful and Virtuous Night is… fine. But it is book of deeply traditional poetry in verse. It’s the kind of book that people think of when they think of poetry as something dry and anachronistic that makes them feel bored and alienated. The language is lovely, and it’s used to tell an interesting-enough narrative about an aging artist, but as far as poetry’s concerned, it’s not a game-changer. It’s old guard. So when the NBA judges went for it, they sent a very strong message about what kind of poetry is worthy of notice. They were given the opportunity to recognize a book that takes giant risks in form and content, and has huge resonance in a growing national conversation about racism and police brutality. They did not do that. Instead, they went with the safest possible choice they could have made, and—I’d argue—the wrong one.
But yesterday, the National Book Critics Circle made no such mistake. When their list of winners was released, Rankine was victorious in the poetry category. It’s also worth noting that the Book Critics Circle’s list of finalists was simply more interesting—and more diverse—than the NBA’s list of finalists. While the NBAs’ short list of nonfiction finalists drew deserved criticism for including only one woman writer, the Book Critics’ Circle’s list breaks down more equitably, and included the great Lacy M. Johnson, whose lovely memoir about decidedly unlovely things, The Other Side, was published by Portland’s Tin House. And women dominated the Book Critics’ Circle’s criticism category as well, which included innovative writing from Lynne Tillman and Eula Biss. Which is to say that while Claudia Rankine’s work is innovative, it by no means made her an anomaly* on that list.
This cannot be said of the National Book Awards’ nominations. When Claudia Rankine didn’t win at that messy, odd awards ceremony last fall, I declared the National Book Awards dead to me. But maybe I was wrong. Maybe they’re just dead.
*One legit anomaly: Rankine was the only writer to make the list twice—Citizen was nominated for both poetry and criticism, because TWO THINGS CAN BE TRUE.