National Book Award Finalists

The National Book Foundation has named the 2009 National Book Award finalists:
Fiction:
American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips
Far North by Marcel Theroux
Nonfiction:
Following the Water by David M. Carroll
Remarkable Creatures by Sean B. Carroll
Fordlandia by Greg Grandin
The Poison King by Adrienne Mayor
The First Tycoon by T. J. Stiles
Poetry
Versed by Rae Armantrout
Or to Begin Again by Ann Lauterbach
Speak Low by Carl Phillips
Open Interval by Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon
Transcendental Studies by Keith Waldrop
The winners will be announced on November 18. Gore Vidal will be honored with the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and David Eggers will receive the Literarian Award for Outstanding Contribution to the American Literary Community.