TTBOOK GEMS

"It's just excruciating!"

From an interview novelist Jacquelyn Mitchard did with Anne Strainchamps on the Public Radio International program "To the Best of Our Knowledge." Mitchard was one of the five judges for the 2002 National Book Award for fiction. They had from June until October to read and judge 473 books. But the hardest part was evaluating the books of writers who were also friends.

Jacquelyn Mitchard: There were judges who'd been friends with writers for years, who had introduced people to their wives or husbands, whose books were the favorites. People had to confess, "This may ruin a friendship. This person may never speak to me again. I'm going to get phone calls. My email is going to blow up tonight when they announce the five finalists." I didn't have that problem because I didn't have any special allegiance to anyone who was in the running, though I did have friends who were among the nominees.

Anne Strainchamps: When you're narrowing it down to the five books that are shortlisted, does it wind up being just the books that are least offensive to everybody?

Jacquelyn Mitchard: No. But getting from 50 to 25 was horrible. Getting from 25 to 15 was almost impossible. Those were three hour conversations. It was like, "I'll give you this and raise you three." It becomes political. I cannot say that the book that won the National Book Award was the best book written in 2002.

Anne Strainchamps: That was The Three Junes, written by Julia Glass.

Jacquelyn Mitchard: Right, I cannot say that. But it was a heck of a book.

Anne Strainchamps: Tell me about the final choice. You all went to New York for this. By then, you were down to just five books. What was the conversation like?

Jacquelyn Mitchard: Well, one of the judges didn't like any of the books. That was a problem. One of the judges liked one of the books but none of the others. The others appreciated parts of all the other books. But there were some people at the table who thought that the final five didn't reflect the literary excellence of that year. And yet, all being people of good will, they were willing to listen to others and try to understand. I remember the moment - it was the end - when one of the judges said, "OK, I finally understand the end of that book. And I'm going to change my vote." And that was the deciding vote. Then we all clapped hands, and said that we'd done our very best.

But after you do this, you'll never want to serve another jury for any kind of literary work in your life. You can't do it twice. It's just excruciating!

Jacquelyn Mitchard (GEMS - from program #03-12-07A - PRIZE-WINNING WRITERS)

recent gems

our shows :: about us :: search :: home