Fiction
Junot Diaz, THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO (Riverhead)
Andrew O’Hagan, BE NEAR ME (Harcourt)
Stewart O’Nan, LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER (Viking)
Per Petterson, OUT STEALING HORSES (Graywolf)
Marianne Wiggins, THE SHADOW CATCHER (Simon & Schuster)
ART SEIDENBAUM AWARD FOR FIRST FICTION
Antonia Arslan (Translated by Geoffrey Brock), SKYLARK FARM (Knopf)
Rebecca Curtis, TWENTY GRAND AND OTHER TALES OF LOVE AND MONEY (Harper)
Pamela Erens, THE UNDERSTORY (Ironweed Press)
Ellen Litman, THE LAST CHICKEN IN AMERICA (W.W. Norton)
Dinaw Mengestu, THE BEAUTIFUL THINGS THAT HEAVEN BEARS (Riverhead)
Poetry
Marvin Bell, MARS BEING RED (Copper Canyon)
Elaine Equi, RIPPLE EFFECT: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS (Coffee House)
Albert Goldbarth, THE KITCHEN SINK: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, 1972-2007 (Graywolf)
Stanley Plumly, OLD HEART: POEMS (W.W. Norton)
Jean Valentine, LITTLE BOAT (Wesleyan)
Mystery/Thriller
Benjamin Black, CHRISTINE FALLS: A NOVEL (Henry Holt)
Ake Edwardson, FROZEN TRACKS: AN INSPECTOR ERIK WINTER NOVEL (Viking)
Karin Fossum (Translated by Charlotte Barslund) THE INDIAN BRIDE (Harcourt)
Tana French, IN THE WOODS (Viking)
Jan Costin Wagner (Translated by John Brownjohn) ICE MOON (Harcourt)
Biography
Nancy Isenberg, FALLEN FOUNDER: THE LIFE OF AARON BURR (Viking)
Tim Jeal, STANLEY: THE IMPOSSIBLE LIFE OF AFRICA’S GREATEST EXPLORER (Yale)
Simon Sebag Montefiore, YOUNG STALIN (Knopf)
Robert Morgan: BOONE: A BIOGRAPHY (Algonquin)
Michael J. Neufeld, VON BRAUN: DREAMER OF SPACE, ENGINEER OF WAR (Knopf)
History
David A. Bell, THE FIRST TOTAL WAR: NAPOLEON’S EUROPE AND THE BIRTH OF WARFARE AS WE KNOW IT (Houghton Mifflin)
Margaret Macmillan, NIXON AND MAO: THE WEEK THAT CHANGED THE WORLD (Random House)
Andrew Nagorski, STALIN, HITLER, AND THE DESPERATE STRUGGLE FOR MOSCOW THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF WORLD WAR II (Simon and Schuster)
Lynne Olson, TROUBLESOME YOUNG MEN: THE REBELS WHO BROUGHT CHURCHILL TO POWER AND HELPED SAVE ENGLAND (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Tim Weiner, LEGACY OF ASHES: THE HISTORY OF THE CIA (Doubleday)
Science and Technology
James L. and Carol Grant Gould, ANIMAL ARCHITECTS: BUILDING AND THE EVOLUTION OF INTELLIGENCE (Basic Books)
Douglas Hofstadter, I AM A STRANGE LOOP (Basic Books)
Christine Kenneally, THE FIRST WORD: THE SEARCH FOR THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE (Viking)
Daniel Lord Smail, ON DEEP HISTORY AND THE BRAIN (University of California)
Gino Segre, FAUST IN COPENHAGEN: A STRUGGLE FOR THE SOUL OF PHYSICS (Viking)
Current Events
Ishmael Beah, A LONG WAY GONE; MEMOIRS OF A BOY SOLDIER (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Tom Bissell, THE FATHER OF ALL THINGS: A MARINE, HIS SON, AND THE LEGACY OF VIETNAM (Pantheon)
Ronald Brownstein, THE SECOND CIVIL WAR: HOW EXTREME PARTISANSHIP HAS PARALYZED WASHINGTON AND POLARIZED AMERICA (Penguin Press)
Naomi Klein, THE SHOCK DOCTRINE: THE RISE OF DISASTER CAPITALISM (Metropolitan)
Elizabeth D. Samet, SOLDIER’S HEART: READING LITERATURE THROUGH PEACE AND WAR AT WEST POINT (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Young Adult Fiction
Sherman Alexie, THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN (Little, Brown)
Geraldine McCaughrean, THE WHITE DARKNESS (HarperTeen)
Walter Dean Myers, WHAT THEY FOUND: LOVE ON 145TH STREET (Random House)
Kenneth Oppel, DARKWING (HarperCollins)
Philip Reeve, A DARKLING PLAIN (The Hungry City Chronicles) (HarperCollins)
Robert Kirsch Award for Lifetime Achievement
Maxine Hong Kingston