Pynchon, Lahiri among National Book Award finalists

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The prestigious literary awards will be handed out on Nov. 20.

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Thomas Pynchon, the famously private novelist who has avoided reporters for 40 years, is among the five finalists for the National Book Award for fiction.

Pynchon, nominated for The Bleeding Edge, set in New York between the dot-com boom and 9/11, is the most celebrated of an unusually well-known group of finalists for this year's fiction prize. They were announced Wednesday.

He faces competition from Jhumpa Lahiri (The Lowland, about an Indian-American scientist who brings his brother's widow to America), James McBride (The Good Lord Bird, which imagines a young slave joining John Brown's raid) and George Saunders (Tenth of December, a short story collection that deals with sex, class, loss and war).

Three of the finalists have been on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list this year: Lahiri (peaked at No. 9), Saunders (No. 26) and Pynchon (No. 29).

Pynchon would shock the literary world if he attended the black-tie awards ceremony in New York on Nov. 20.

In 1974, when Pynchon won a National Book Award for Gravity's Rainbow, his publisher arranged for "Professor" Irwin Corey, the double-talking comedian, to accept the prize on Pynchon's behalf.

Many of the guests, who didn't know Corey and had never seen Pynchon or even his photograph, assumed it was the novelist himself. It may be hard to top that this year. Pynchon's publisher didn't immediately respond to questions about his plans.

The fifth fiction finalist is Rachel Kushner, author of The Flamethrowers, about a young female artist fascinated by speed and motorcycles who gets entangled with a group of Italian radicals.

In the three other categories, the finalists are:

Non-fiction:

Jill Lepore, Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin; Wendy Lower, Hitler's Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields; George Packer, The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America; Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832; and Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief.

Young People's Literature:

Kathi Appelt, The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp; Cynthia Kadohata, The Thing About Luck; Tom McNeal, Far Far Away; Meg Rosoff, Picture Me Gone; and Gene Luen Yang, Boxers & Saints

Poetry:

Frank Bidart, Metaphysical Dog; Lucie Brock-Broido, Stay, Illusion; Adrian Matejka, The Big Smoke; Matt Rasmussen, Black Aperture; and Mary Szybist, Incarnadine

The National Book Awards, which are supported by the publishing industry, have made a concerted effort in the past few years to attract more attention for the prizes, which some consider the book world's version of the Academy Awards. After criticism the awards had become too high-brow, booksellers and book critics were added to the five-member judging panels that used to be made of of just authors.

For the first time, The Contenders: Excerpts from the 2013 National Book Award Finalists, will be released as a free e-book series that can be downloaded at nationalbook.org.

At the awards ceremony, the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters will be presented to novelist E.L. Doctorow. And Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison will present the Literarian Award for Outstanding Contribution to the American Literary Community to poet and memoirist Maya Angelou.

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Poems and National Poetry Day: news and teaching resources round up

Bring poems to life on National Poetry Day using our selection of news stories and teaching resources. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

Poetry has made the headlines this week, with the death of Ghana's most famous poet Kofi Awoonor in the Kenyan siege followed by Michael Gove's call for pupils to give up sexting in favour of sending each other love poems.

As it's National Poetry Day on Thursday 3 October, marked this year with a water theme, we have pulled together news, teaching resources, multimedia and recommended websites to help your make your celebrations inspiring.

Ghanaian poet Kofi Awoonor among Westgate mall victims
One of Ghana's most famous poets has been killed in the Nairobi shopping centre attack, after travelling to Kenya for a literary festival. Find out more about this incredible poet in his obituary http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/23/kofi-awoonor.

George the poet 'Go Home' – video
Performance artist George the Poet http://georgethepoet.com/ takes on the government's campaign against illegal immigrants. Thought-provoking video to play in class.

Top 10 most requested poems
Poetry Please, the world's longest-running radio poetry show, reveals its 10 most requested poems. Great reading for your students, plus raises interesting questions of the purpose of poetry. Why do we continue to want to hear poems written by long-dead poets?

To Autumn – poem of the week
One of the most widely published of John Keats' poems, To Autumn is laden with meaning – and is the Guardian's poem of the week. Read the poem and commentary here, great stimulus for your students' own autumn-themed poetry.

Typhoons in the news
The theme of this year's Poetry Day is water, so your students may want to do their own news-based research on the impact of water on people's lives, as super typhoon Usagi hits the western Pacific.

Romantic rhymes to Michael Gove – share your sentiments
As Michael Gove tells young people to scrap sexts for love poems, we ask teachers to tweet us their verses for the education secretary. Share your verses with us in the comments thread.

Mermaid's Lament poster
Gorgeous watery world poster to celebrate National Poetry Day inspired by Mermaid's Lament by Rachel Rooney.

Squirting Rainbows by Shirley Hughes
A classic poem by the legend that is Shirley Hughes, beautifully presented for classroom display for National Poetry Day 2013.

Born of Water key stage 3 lesson plan
This reading and writing activity by Mandy Coe is based on poems by Rachel Rooney and Carl Sandburg.

Splashing out with poetry in reception
Based on poems by James Coe, this is a reading and performance activity for early years.

Jelly fish cut out
Great idea for responding to this year's National Poetry Day watery theme for early years and primary students.

Into the Deep
Flotsam, Jetsam and the Deeps are explored in this stirring lesson plan aimed at key stage 4 based on Michael Symmons Roberts' poem.

The Whale Watcher
The Scottish Poetry Library http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk has created a wonderful set of resources in partnership with Scottish Water, including this one on Kathleen Jamie's Whale Watcher.

Cut up and shuffle
This imaginative idea to encourage close-reading and collaboration can be adapted for ages 7 to 16.

Think of a Flood
Notes and activity-based ideas to explore Jackie Kay's poem Think of a Flood, itself an English version of a Gaelic poem by Myles Campbell, Rudan a nì uisge, which can be adapted for all ages.

Rain
Notes and ideas for teaching Don Paterson's poem Rain.

National Poetry Day animation
Leo Crane's watery-themed animation is absolutely beautiful and will only take up 30 seconds of your day. Unmissable viewing.

Scottish Poetry Library
This site aims to bring people and poetry together and has an engrossing learning section with great downloadables.

Poetry Society's Poetry Class
Fantastically inspiring resources and ideas here. The society also runs a poetry cafe in London for those craving old-school contact plus open mic sessions.

National Poetry Day website
Lots of help and ideas here here for National Poetry Day and beyond.

Apples and Snakes
Poetry site with a bite – spoken word, poetry slams and lots of collaboration to engage students.

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FREEDOM NATIONAL: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865

Jan 20, 2013 by Washington Post book reviewers

James Oakes
Norton
ISBN 978-0393065312
595 pages
$29.95

Reviewed by Howell Raines

The Republican newspaper publisher Horace Greeley bowed to no man north of Richmond when it came to underestimating Abraham Lincoln. In the late summer of 1862, his New York Tribune was pummeling the president for dragging his feet on an expected blanket announcement freeing all slaves in the rebel states. In response to these stinging editorials, on August 22 of that year Lincoln penned one of the most puzzling letters of his presidency. He reminded Greeley that the great mission of the war was restoration of the Union. He continued, "If I could save the Union without freeing (BEGIN ITAL)any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing (BEGIN ITAL)all(END ITAL) the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others I would also do that."

Was Lincoln really a "Reluctant Emancipator," as Greeley and many historians since his day have insisted? Then why did the 16th president, only a month later, on Sept. 22, convene his cabinet for a surprise reading of the Emancipation Proclamation and release it upon the public "like a thunderbolt" that same day?

In "Freedom National," historian James Oakes answers that question eloquently and, in the judgment of this amateur student of the Civil War, fully. Oakes argues that Lincoln, from the moment of his inauguration, began using every political and military means at his disposal to wipe out slavery forever. Yet he also believed, as did virtually all politicians on both sides, that the Constitution protected slavery as a right of individual Southern states and therefore allowed him to designate only one casus belli- the preservation of the federal nation.

"Unless the Constitution was rewritten, the federal government could not constitutionally wage a war for the purpose of destroying slavery," Oakes explains. "Only the 'military necessity' of suppressing the rebellion could legally justify emancipation. That, at least, was the standard Republican Party position all through the war, and Lincoln's answer to Greeley merely restated it."

Yes, one must agree, but what a restatement! Lincoln's letter embodied the kind of virtuous obfuscation that only Lincoln, the presidency's greatest natural political genius, could have managed. Or make that stage-managed. The theatrical analogy seems proper for a moment when the film "Lincoln" is vividly recreating the final act of the emancipation drama. As the film demonstrates, so attuned was Lincoln to the social, legislative and constitutional uncertainties of the coming Reconstruction that he foresaw that he could fully liberate 4 million new black citizens only by pushing for a new amendment to the Constitution (the 13th). This valuable book, along with Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals," gives inquisitive moviegoers access to the full back story.

Oakes' detailed account of this complex story cannot be fully summarized here. But his argument that emancipation was a process, not the result of a single document, has produced some helpful distinctions and benchmarks. Lincoln understood from the moment his armies went South that "military emancipation" would permanently free blacks in conquered territory. Early in the war, slaves who fled into Union lines were deemed to be beneficiaries of "self emancipation." Oakes also explains Lincoln's coldly pragmatic decision to allow slavery to continue throughout the war in the border states of Delaware, Maryland, Missouri and, most critically, Kentucky. He concluded that upsetting their slaveholders could hand victory to the Confederacy.

"Freedom National" also highlights an unlikely hero, the hated Union proconsul of occupied New Orleans, Gen.Benjamin "Beast" Butler, the notorious insulter of Southern womanhood. At a time when Union generals like Don Carlos Buell were forcing freedom-seeking slaves back into the arms of their masters, Butler set an example for other generals by unilaterally emancipating blacks who came to his camps. Later, his tactic of allowing cooperating owners of Louisiana sugar plantations to stay in production by putting former slaves on salary and forswearing the lash won praise from Lincoln as a model for the future.

Oakes makes his case that Lincoln and many of his Union colleagues intended from the start to achieve slavery's "ultimate extinction" by meticulous combing of documents of the time. He goes back to the words they spoke in Congress or wrote in newspapers between 1860 and 1862. Lincoln was not alone in his eloquence and passion. It was a time of great oratory and precise argumentation. The technique points up the impoverished nature of our current political dialogue. How could any future historian reconstruct a detailed picture of our current national crisis by drawing on, say, the collected speeches of John Boehner or transcripts of the Bill O'Reilly show?

Howell Raines, a former executive editor of the New York Times, is researching the Civil War period for a historical novel.

Copyright 2013 Washington Post Writers Group

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