At noon today, in Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater, novelist Scott Turow announced the nominees for the 2008 National Book Awards. In all, 200 publishers around the country submitted 1,258 books into the fevered competition–six percent more books than last year’s list.
Out of 108 titles submitted by publishers, the Poetry nominees are: Frank Bidart for Watching the Spring Festival; Mark Doty for Fire to Fire, Reginald Gibbons for Creatures of a Day; Richard Howard for Without Saying; Patricia Smith for Blood Dazzler.