Two authors with ties to LAI are finalists for book award

The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) will be announcing its winners for the 2017 book awards on March 15 at the New School in New York City.

You can bet that students and faculty with ties to the Literary Arts Institute at the College of Saint Benedict will be closely monitoring the award for criticism.

Two authors with ties to the LAI are among the five finalists in that category.

• Edwidge Danticat’s book, “The Art of Death” Writing the Final Story,” was selected by the LAI as the 2017 winner of the Sister Mariella Gable Award. The award, given each year by CSB for an important work of literature published by Graywolf Press, is named after the English professor who taught at CSB from 1928-73.

Danticat was in residence Oct. 26-27 at CSB and Saint John’s University.

• Kevin Young’s book, “Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts and Fake News,” is also a finalist in that category.

Young will be in residence March 20-22 at CSB and SJU, with a public reading scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 21, at room 204, Gorecki Center, CSB.

The finalists for all the awards will hold a public reading March 14 at the New School.

The NBCC was founded in 1974 by a group of influential critics of the day, and awarded its first set of honors in 1975. Now compromised of 100 working critics and book-review editors across the country, the organization annually bestows its awards in six categories, honoring the best books published in the past year in the U.S.

The finalists are nominated, evaluated and selected by the 24-member board of directors, which consists of editors and critics from the country’s leading print and online publications.