The National Books Awards announced their nominees for the 2011 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature last Wednesday, including My Name is Not Easy by Debby Dahl, Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai, Flesh & Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and its Legacy by Alfred Marrin, Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt, and Shine by Lauren Myracle. Then, a few hours later, Chime by Franny Billingsley was added to the list, for a total of six titles. The addition of a sixth title was apparently due to “a miscommunication.” The miscommunication? Apparently, Chime was meant to be a finalist. Myracle’s Shine, about a teenage girl’s quest to find those responsible for the brutal abuse of her gay one-time best friend, was not. Instead of keeping all six finalists, as it appeared for the last five days they would, the National Book Foundation asked Myracle to withdraw herself from consideration in order to “preserve the integrity” of the awards.
Myracle has done so, much to the chagrin of the furious publishing community, who, naturally, have taken to Twitter both to decry the ironic lack of integrity being shown by the National Book Foundation and to attempt to bolster the sales of Shine in response. On the bright side, Myracle’s withdrawal as a result of NBF’s incompetence has had one positive effect: Publishers Weekly reports that they will be donating $5,000 to the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Definitely a nice gesture. But you know what else would be a nice gesture? Keeping Shine on the damn list.
Harold Augenbraum, the NBF’s executive director, has since apologized in a brief interview with Publishers Lunch, but as long as he continues to maintain that any sort of “integrity” is being preserved through this action, he’s not likely to find forgiveness from the publishing industry any time soon.
