Horse Racing and "Lord of Misrule" from On Point with Tom Ashbrook Podcast

We speak with 2010 National Book Award winner Jaimy Gordon about her novel "Lord of Misrule" -- and ride into the world of horse racing. William Nack, author of "Secretariat," joins.

Download that On Point podcast here. She's a Brown University alum, and The Brown Daily Herald had this to say about the author and her recent win for Lord of Misrule:

In fact, her decision to attend Brown for graduate school instead of the University of Iowa was partly due to the fact that there was a racetrack nearby. The other deciding factor was novelist John Hawkes, who was on the faculty at the time. "I'm very proud to say I went to Brown when people ask me where I went to graduate school," Gordon said. "As graduate programs go, this one has a very special character. It welcomes idiosyncrasies." At Brown, she interacted with students and faculty who were "powerful influences." It is also where she met McPherson, then an undergraduate, with whom she worked at Hellcoal, a student-run literary press. Through Hellcoal, they published three books written by prisoners whom Gordon taught creative writing in Cranston.

Read that Brown Daily Herald article here. The New York Times also covered the writer and her publisher, really well; they did well to put in a lot of good context here. It turns out that the publisher, McPherson, is an indie; expected. But they're a special company, with the sole proprietor of the publishing business Bruce McPherson, being its lone full time employee. The publisher is the sort that "the kind of publisher who sometimes seems more concerned with how his books look than how they sell. “Lord of Misrule,” for example, has a full cloth cover and a stitched binding, which is practically unheard of these days." If you believe in "you are what you read," and if you believe in reading well in the same way that people eat well to live well, then you should check out McPherson's catalog. Here's the publisher's website. Here's that NYT piece. Gordon also wrote: She Drove without Stopping: A Novel, Shamp of the City-Solo: A Novel, Bogeywoman (Sun & Moon Classics), Circumspections from an Equestrian Statue

"Let the Great World Spin Author Colum McCann Gives Amy Ryan a Reading Lesson from New York Magazine by Alex Vadukul

Colum McCann, the National Book Award–winning author of Let the Great World Spin, will be curating tonight's performance of "Selected Shorts," the series held at New York City's Symphony Space in which actors read the host author's favorite short stories. McCann recruited Mary-Louise Parker and Michael Cerveris to read other writers' works, but Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone, The Office) will be taking on one of McCann's own pieces, called "Everything in this Country Must." This will be no cold reading: The author and actress met Friday for the first time at an Upper East Side café to discuss his book and her approach, and Vulture tagged along.

Read that full article here. See also: Dancer: A Novel, by Colum McCann (Author)Let the Great World Spin: A Novel [Paperback], Let the Great World Spin: A Novel

"Turn some real pages this Reading Week" from North by Northwestern by Dan Camponovo

Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann: Remember life before the World Trade Center fell? All those years ago? Yeah, me either, really. I was 11. They say it was nice, and Colum McCann tries to capture that lost feeling in his National Book Award-winning novel. Jumping back and forth between 1974, when Philippe Petit famously tight-rope walked between the Twin Towers, and a present day New York City prostitute’s courtoom trial, Let the Great World Spin stands as a toast to the towers we lost, as they were on September 10, 2001, and as a promise that we, all of us, as New Yorkers and Americans, will rebuild and grow bigger and stronger than we ever were.

There are a few other titles that are definitely worth checking out; read the full list of titles, mentioned in this article, here.

"National Book Award winners announced" from Minnesota Public Radio by Marianne Combs

An eleven-year-old girl with Asperger's is the main character of Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine, which took home the award for Young People's Literature. It's published by Philomel Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group.

Read that full article, here. See also: Quaking, Quaking, The Absolute Value of Mike

"Erskine Wins NBA in Young People's Literature" from Publishers Weekly by Diane Roback

Kathryn Erskine was filled with gratitude as she stepped up to the podium on Wednesday night to claim the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, for her novel Mockingbird (Philomel), about a 10-year-old girl with Asperger’s syndrome. She thanked the National Book Awards “for supporting reading and our culture,” as well as the judges, her publishing house Penguin, and “readers and friends and supporters and family.” She also thanked educators, for teaching children “to think critically and deeply, and think for themselves.” And she saved special thanks for her mother, for teaching her not only the “what” of the world, “but also the ‘why.’”

Read the full feature from Publishers Weekly, here. See also: Quaking, Quaking, The Absolute Value of Mike

"Patti Smith's 'Just Kids' Wins Nonfiction Award" from NPR's Morning Edition by LYNN NEARY

Rock musician Patti Smith is now a literary star. Her memoir about life in New York City in the 1960s, Just Kids, won the National Book Award for nonfiction. The literary awards were handed out Wednesday night in New York City. Lord of Misrule author Jaimy Gordon won for fiction. NEARY: The most emotional moment of last night came when Patti Smith won the non fiction award for her memoir "Just Kids," about her lifelong friendship and early love affair with the late artist Robert Mapplethorpe. Smith said she promised Mapplethorpe she would write the book the day before he died of AIDS. Ms. PATTI SMITH (Author, "Just Kids"): I was the only one that could write it really, since we grew together, we evolved as artists together. And he could also trust that I would present him to the world as I knew him, which was as an artist, a loving friend; mischievous, generous, kind, funny and beautiful. So I did my best. NEARY: In accepting her award, Smith recalled the time when she was a young girl, new to the city, working at Scribner's Bookstore and dreaming of writing her own book one day.

Download the podcast here. See also: Patti Smith Complete 1975-2006: Lyrics, Reflections & Notes for the Future, Auguries of Innocence: Poems, Early Work: 1970-1979, Patti Smith: Dream of Life

"Surprise! Jaimy Gordon Wins The National Book Award, And Patti Smith Weeps" - from NPR's blog, "Monkey See"

The National Book Awards are like the Oscars of literature, without the national telecast, the security guards to watch over the Harry Winston jewels or the glowing Hollywood tans (most of the nominees bear the wan, indoors-y look of the writer's life). But, like the Academy Awards, there are fancy dresses, cummerbunds and cater waiters passing around Bellinis and caviar bites — trust us, book people can party. And, much like the Oscars, the NBAs are a particular industry's biggest night, in which a career can be made (or at least pushed heartily along) with the opening of an envelope. This year, that career belongs to Jaimy Gordon, a mid-career novelist from Baltimore living and teaching in Kalamazoo, Mich. Her fourth novel, Lord of Misrule, won the NBA for fiction on Wednesday evening, a victory that came as a surprise to many — including Gordon herself. When the announcement was read, the author's table companions shrieked at full volume, and Gordon seemed to be in shock when she finally took the stage. "I'm totally unprepared, and I’m totally surprised," she told the crowd. Later, we observed the author standing alone outside the grand façade of the Cipriani Ballroom on Wall Street in her long red gown, talking quietly into her cell phone: "I won," she said into the receiver, still seeming stunned. "I won ... the National Book Award."

Read the full NPR Monkey See piece, here. See also: She Drove without Stopping: A Novel, Shamp of the City-Solo: A Novel, Bogeywoman (Sun & Moon Classics)