I just want to say Holy Effing Shit!, my friend Salvatore's book was nominated for a National Book Award, yesterday. In so many ways, this is good news for writers everywhere. As my friend Emily said, "my faith in the publishing world is renewed." I couldn't agree more. I still feel moved to tears by the nomination, and inspired. Salvatore started his novel shortly after high school, and finished it 10-ish years later. It's hard enough to write a book, but the publishing world gives you about two months on the shelves to sell well, once it goes out into the world. Here is his description of writing the book longhand, before manually typing it on the typewriter, throwing out the first 600 pages. Congratulations Salvatore and Graywolf!

Other finalists:
Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project (Riverhead)
Rachel Kushner, Telex from Cuba (Scribner)
Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country (Modern Library)
Marilynne Robinson, Home (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Salvatore Scibona, The End (Graywolf Press)