Today the National Book Foundation revealed that the 20 finalists in the 2010 National Book Awards will be announced at the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home in Georgia. The announcement is scheduled for October 13, 2010.
The Foundation picked the venue out of more than 75 suggestions from readers around the country. O’Connor’s family lived in the home from 1925 to 1938, and the building has been recently renovated. The celebrated author won the 1972 National Book Award for Fiction in 1972 and won the reader-voted Best of the National Book Awards Fiction prize last year.
Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home (pictured) president Bill Dawers had this statement: “The emotional intensity and shocking immediacy of O’Connor’s fiction has influenced countless American writers, so it seems especially fitting that we have the honor of hosting this extraordinary event.”