Congrats to the '5 Under 35' National Book Awards honorees—for the first time, all women!

I’m honored to be interviewing the nominees on video at the annual party on November 18th at powerHouse Arena in Dumbo.

Carrie Brownstein, acclaimed musician and a creator, writer, and star of Portlandia, will host the event. Author Fiona Maazel, a 2008 5 Under 35 author, and a fantastic writer, will moderate a conversation among the young writers.

NOMINEES:
Molly Antopol, The UnAmericans, (W.W. Norton & Company, February 2014)
Selected by Jesmyn Ward, National Book Award Winner in 2011 for Salvage the Bones

NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names, (Reagan Arthur Books/Little, Brown, 2013)
Selected by Junot Díaz, National Book Award Finalist in 2012 for This is How You Lose Her

Amanda Coplin, The Orchardist, (Harper, 2012) 
Selected by Louise Erdrich, National Book Award Winner in 2012 for The Round House 

Daisy Hildyard, Hunters in the Snow, (Jonathan Cape, Random House UK, 2013) 
Selected by Kevin Powers, National Book Award Finalist in 2012 for The Yellow Birds

Merritt Tierce, Love Me Back, (Doubleday, fall 2014)
Selected by Ben Fountain, National Book Award Finalist in 2012 for Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk 

I’m thinking back to a day long ago when Vonnegut told my Iowa MFA class (back in 2001) that women writers were “writing the most important and innovative work of the next generation.”

He was also chain-smoking in a dorm rec hall when he told us this, which made it feel even more magical!