daniel prazer

So the National Book Foundation announced its finalists for the 2009 NBA.

Honestly, I haven’t read any of them, though I’ve read great reviews of all of them (plus, according to Judge Lydia Millet‘s Facebook page, “Far Bright Star by Robert Olmstead and Paul Harding’s Tinkers.”)

Speaking of the five-author panel of fiction judges, Lydia Millet is one of three—count ‘em, THREE!—Story Week alumni. Junot Diaz appeared at the 2007 Story Week Festival of Writer’s between winning the National Book Critic’s Circle Award and the Pulitzer for The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Charles Johnson came by before my time at Columbia College, and won the NBA in 1990 for Middle Passage.

Good company to be in. Congrats to all the finalists!