The National Book Foundation announced yesterday the five debut fiction writers who will be honored at the third annual 5 Under 35 celebration. Each author was nominated by a past recipient or finalist for the National Book Award as "someone whose work is particularly promising and exciting and is among the best of a new generation of writers."
The honorees are Matthew Eck for his novel The Farther Shore (Milkweed Editions, 2007), selected by Joshua Ferris; Keith Gessen for his novel All the Sad Young Literary Men (Viking Press, 2008), selected by Jonathan Franzen; Sana Krasikov for her short story collection One More Year (Spiegel & Grau, 2008), selected by Francine Prose; Nam Le for his novel The Boat (Knopf, 2008), selected by Mary Gaitskill; and Fiona Maazel for her novel Last Last Chance (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008), selected by Jim Shepard.
The writers will be honored at a celebration on November 17 at Tribeca Cinemas in New York City, where they will be introduced by their nominating authors and read from their spotlighted works. Memoirist Dean Wareham will emcee the event, which will feature the musical stylings of nonfiction writer Chuck Klosterman, who will act as DJ for the evening. The party kicks off National Book Awards week, which culminates in the National Book Awards ceremony on November 19.
