More Chicagoans Nominated For Nat'l Book Awards

By Marcus Gilmer in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 16, 2008 8:30PM

A huge mea culpa on our part: in all of our excitement over Aleksandar Hemon's National Book Award finalist nomination, we neglected to mention two other Chicago-connected writers who also garnered nominations.

• Reginald Gibbons, a professor at Northwestern University, was nominated for his collection of poems, Creatures of a Day (Louisiana State University Press).

• Patricia Smith (yes, that Patricia Smith) was also nominated in poetry for her collection Blood Dazzler (Coffee House Press). While Smite now resides in New York, she was born and raised in Chicago.

Thanks for all the comments & emails and to the ALA's Marci Merola for the extra information.