A grouchy take on the National Book Awards

Bob Hoover at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was happy that the National Book Awards honored Carnegie Melon's Terrance Hayes for his poetry. But other than that? Harumph:

Ultimately, it's the judges who decide the outcome of America's top literary awards. Some are well known -- Cornelius Eady and Linda Gregerson in poetry, Sallie Tisdale and Blake Bailey in nonfiction and Andrei Codrescu and Carolyn See in fiction.

It's a tough job, as William Gass, the great novelist and sometime judge tells us:

"The giving of prizes is a notoriously chancy business. Look at the mistakes the Nobel committee has made. Or shall we amuse ourselves by listing the important works the National Book Awards missed. ... Any award-giving outfit is doomed by its cumbersome committee structure to make mistakes, to pass the masters by in silence and applaud the apprentices, the mimics, the hacks or to honor one of those agile surfers who rides every fresh wave . . . "

Previous National Book Award gatherings were held at a Times Square hotel with big-name hosts such as Steve Martin were a dim memory in the cacophonous Cipriani banquet hall on Wall Street with second-tier comedian Andy Borowitz.

He stepped off on the wrong foot from the get-go, comparing the American publishing industry to that crippled cruise liner wallowing off the Mexican coast. Did anybody tell him his audience was the publishing industry gathered to celebrate itself? It was not amused, and Mr. Borowitz was forced to apologize later.

Sounds like fun!