Patti Smith, Indie-Published Novel are Rock Stars of 2010 National Book Awards

Known for her poetry and her rock 'n' roll, punk music legend "Patti Smith":http://www.pattismith.net/ has now been honored for her prose with a National Book Award, given out Wednesday night in New York. Her prize-winning work of nonfiction, _Just Kids_, is a memoir of her early life in New York with her best friend, artist Robert Mapplethorpe, who died of AIDS in1989. "I know the story best and I know how Robert struggled as a young man and a young artist, and I promised him I would write it. But it took me a long time," Smith "told":http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2009/12/conversation-patti-smith.html Jeffrey Brown about the book in an Art Beat interview last December. Bloomberg "reported":http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-18/patti-smith-punk-legend-wins-national-book-award-for-mapplethorpe-memoir.html that an emotional Smith described working as a clerk in a bookstore, shelving National Book Award winners and wondering what it would be like to win. The fiction prize went to "_Lord of Misrule_":http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2010_f_gordon.html, the fourth novel by writer and professor "Jaimy Gordon":http://www.wmich.edu/english/facultyandstaff/profiles/old_pages/jaimy, which was published by small publisher McPherson & Co., which only publishes a couple of books a year. Gordon's story takes place at the horse racetrack and centers around a scheme to save a troubled stable. "Terrance Hayes":http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/entertainment/poetry/profiles/poet_hayes.html, a creative writing professor at Carnegie Mellon, received the poetry award for his collection "_Lighthead_":http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2010_p_hayes.html. The PBS NewsHour "profiled":http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan-june08/poetry_04-24.html Hayes in 2008. You can hear Hayes reading some of his older poems "here":http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/entertainment/poetry/profiles/poet_hayes.html at our Poetry Series. "_Mockingbird_":http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2010_ypl_erskine.html, the winner for young people's literature, tells the story of a 11-year-old girl with Asperger's syndrome, and is based on _To Kill a Mockingbird_ and the events of the shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007. Author "Kathryn Erskine":http://www.kathyerskine.com/Kathryn_Erskine/Welcome.html, whose other books include _Quaking_, was born in the Netherlands and lived in several different countries growing up. She now lives in Virginia. An honorary award was also given to the "New Journalist" Tom Wolfe.