National Book Critics Circle Awards
March 6th, 2007 | Uncategorized
I’m gonna be in NYC Wednesday March 7 and Thursday March 8 because Fun Home is nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. There’s a reading of all the finalists Wednesday evening at 6pm at The New School University, Tishman Auditorium, 66 W. 12th St. There’ll be some pretty fancy people there. A real literary smorgasbord. You should come! It’s free and open to the public.
Then on Thursday the 8th, the award ceremony happens. That also appears to be free and open to the public, and also happens at 6pm at Tishman Auditorium. Though it probably won’t be as interesting as the reading.
35 Responses to “National Book Critics Circle Awards”
Ah, if only I was in New York! Congrats again, Alison.
🙂
What an honor! too bad I’m out here in the middle of nowhere, cuz I’d sure like to see it when you win…
Wihoo! Congrats!
sweet, I am in New York! and this is free too. And worth missing an art history class. I’ve got to be there, at least for an hour or so before I have to leave to do homework.
wow booker winner desai, eggers, jentz and of course you!!!
and its all free, unfortunately i live in england… 🙁 Congrats Alison.
i’m done with work at 6:30, so if they let in latecomers, i’ll be there!!! my office is just around the corner. congratulations!
Ooo, Cybercita, I’m jealous. I hope you win, Alison! Have a great time! *waving from the shore of Lake Michigan*
About the company you’ll be keeping at the soiree, I do want to read Ann Fessler’s book about women who gave up their babies for adoption in the pre-Roe v. Wade days – it’s supposed to be quite good. I was given up in the 60’s, and have since found my birth family, so theirs are stories I’d love to hear.
It’s so wild that you are coming to my school! See you tomorrow.
Alison, you should come to Michigan while you’re out and about. Why, you ask? Because it’s, er… Michigan! Woo!
I’m no where near NYC. How friendly of you to invite us all!
I happened upon the fact that Fun Home will be coming out in paperback and the cover has a (I almost wrote photo) drawing that I don’t remember seeing in the book. A poignant drawing, well done. I saw this on Powell’s site. Check it out, eh?
congratulations–you deserve this! too bad i didn’t know earlier or i would have scheduled my ny trip to include this. i have yet to hear you read in person–it’s as though either you’ve just been where i’m going or the other way around. have fun in nyc!
maybe you should now start considering yourself “fancy”?
Oooh, if you get a chance, go to Tea and Sympathy. It’s in the Village near St. Vincent’s. English food to die for (not from)!
Wow, how exciting! I was thinking we’d have to wait until July. That’s a whole lot of people, though. How much is each person going to read? Or are there going to be a bunch of readings simultaneously in different rooms? Good luck tonight, I’m rooting for you!
“Fancy” is an understatement. Wow. Congratulations.
Congrats! I hope you win. I’ll be on Long Island, not far away, rooting for you!
Yay! The comicCon panels seemed super cool, but free (and free of costumes) is more up my alley! Thanks for announcing.
Congrats Alison. I hope you win. I’m about as far from NYC as you could be and still be in the continental US. But hopefully you will come to Oregon again. Remember what you said about Portland International Airport? We actually received the “Best Airport In The Nation” award. Hope you choose to do another tour. Have fun in NYC!
Yahoo! Congrats, and sounds like a fun event.
I heard on NPR that yesterday was “Town Meeting Day” in Vermont. ‘Dya go?
🙁 OK, so next time you’re in NYC, do it when I can actually make it to these things! In fact, you can experience the whole New York thing by coming to my small, but livable, 3rd floor walkup with sagging bathroom ceiling. I’m getting a new sofa bed…
i attended the reading this evening, although unfortunately too late to hear alison read. however, i did manage to spot her in the audience almost immediately and was able to say hello during the intermission.
it was wonderful to meet you, alison, thank you for being so gracious to a starry eyed stranger! i’m rooting for you to win tomorrow evening!
Just to play devil’s advocate… Fun Home is going to have a public reading? How can that be done well for a graphic novel?
Gary Larson’s Far Side had a cartoon once entitled, “Comic book readings”, where a woman at a podium solemnly intones, “And then in the last panel, the other cat says, Here we go again…”
Heh. Slide show-style, I’d imagine.
I went and really enjoyed it. Yup, Alison had a slide show. The works were all quite varied, with only a few snoozers. And a couple of wincers – some of the readings were really graphic, e.g. a woman describing her attempted murder. I just love hearing Alison read the book, can’t wait for the next (maybe longer) opportunity.
Ng, thanks to the wonders of Powerpoint, cartoonists can give readings from their works with minimal trouble.
On Monday I saw Art Spiegelman give his “Comix 101.1” lecture — he talked about the history of comics and his work, projecting examples from both on a huge screen — sources tell me that he reedits the thing almost every time he gives the talk.
Shadocat! You’re not in the middle of nowhere. You’re here in KC with me. Wouldn’t it be fun if Alison could come here? We could all engage in some kind of bold provocation for the edification of the people down the road in Marshall. Censorship – boo!
Alison was conveniently the second person to read; I was tempted to stay for the whole event and miss my classes, but I snuck out and gave my back row seat to some latecomers. I did see her in the audience beforehand- I brought my copy of Fun Home but I was too shy and didn’t want to pester her when she was about to go on stage, I’ll wait for MoCCA to get it signed. I must say it was a cool and strange sort of recognition to catch a glimpse of her in person because she looks so unmistakably familiar from seeing her appearance reflected in the characters she draws. There was a lot of publishing industry schmoozing going on around me… I too was wondering how the ‘reading an excerpt from a graphic novel’ was going to go, but the timing of her voiceover gave the slideshow of panels she chose a great unexpected layer of dry humor. The part where her mother gives Joan the book of poems, coming after her description of how her father decorated the house- I was like, “Was this supposed to be funny in the book and I just didn’t pick up on it?” It was all in how she read it. Cute save at the end too – the last line was cut off on her computer, she was smooth and handled it well, I was just like ‘aww I wanted to hear it’. Great stuff.
Pooka, that would be great!!! Let’s see, Linda Wilson could interview her on KKFI’s “Womansong”, then we could either have the main event at the Unity Temple, or somewhere on the UMKC campus (their Women’s Center could hep sponer, maybe?). “Rosie’s Bar and Grill” ot the “Insta-Matics could open for her…do ya see where I’m headed with this?
So who’s going to be the one to post the results?? Those of us without television, etc., are dying out here in the wilderness…
The NBCC site has a blog, Critical Mass, where they’ve been announcing winners. Sadly, AB lost to The Lost, by Daniel Mendelsohn.
I’d consider it winning to be under consideration…
Did I miss the post mentioning that Alison/Fun Home was nominated for a Lambda in the Arts & Culture category? http://www.lambdaliterary.org/awards/current_finalists.html
Fun Home is also up for a Lesbian Memoir Lammy. Alison has at least four Lammys. She can use start using them for bowling pins soon.
Or she could juggle them.
Silvio-
Now *there’s* a visual!
Deena,
It would be a bit uncharacteristically ostentatious of our Alison…
but Lois would do it in a heartbeat!
Stewart would do it to make a statement…