Book Critics circle give nod to island tales

By Times Wires
Published March 7, 2008

NEW YORK

Stories from the island of Hispaniola were winners Thursday night at the National Book Critics Circle awards: Dominican-American Junot Diaz took the fiction prize for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Edwidge Danticat of Haiti was cited in autobiography for Brother, I'm Dying.

The general nonfiction prize went to Harriet A. Washington's Medical Apartheid, while the winner in biography was Tim Jeal's Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer. The poetry award went to Mary Jo Bang for Elegy, and the criticism winner was Alex Ross' The Rest is Noise.

Diaz, whose novel tells of a young, obese Dominican immigrant and his tragicomic quest for love, was on his way to Venezuela on Thursday night for personal reasons.

Jeal spoke of the many years working on his book about the famed explorer Henry Stanley, a process he described as "mammoth" and "irksome."

Two honorary awards also were presented. Literary critic Sam Anderson of New York magazine received the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, and Emilie Buchwald, co-founder of the Milkweed Editions publishing house, won the Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award.

The National Book Critics Circle, founded in 1974, has about 500 members. There were no cash prizes.

Calendar

To do

Cajun Zydeco Crawfish Festival: Vinoy Park in St. Petersburg is taken over by the flavors and sounds of the bayou this weekend. All it takes is 10,000 pounds of crawfish and hot dance music. See Geno Delafose and French Rockin' Boogie at 7:30 tonight. Don't worry, dance lessons are available. Admission is $12 Friday and Sunday, $15 Saturday, $35 for weekend pass. Kids younger than 12 get in free. www.cajunconnection.org.

To watch

SEASON FINALE: Stargate Atlantis, 10 p.m., Sci Fi: The capper on another eventful season has Sheppard returning home after an unsuccessful search for Teyla. And alas, things just aren't right. Not only has the city been deserted, its systems are all dead, and instead of ocean, it is surrounded by bleak sand dunes.

Clarification

The interim location of the Tampa Museum of Art has a substantial security system. A story in Thursday's Floridian was unclear on that point.

[Last modified March 7, 2008, 00:04:25]