National Book Foundation Corrects Mistake in Finalist of National Book Awards

On October 12, 2011, the National Book Foundation announced the finalists for the 2011 National Book Awards. On October 17, 2011, the news broke that one of the finalists has withdrawn her book after the Foundation admitted a mistake in the announcement.

Lauren Myracle has withdrawn her book "Shine" which was a finalist for the Young People's Literature catagory. The Foundation announced her book as a finalist by mistake, meaning to announce "Chime" by Franny Billingsley instead. The Foundation has offered little explanation for the mistake, and asked Myacle to withdraw her title in order to preserve the integrity of the award after some deliberation as to what should be done to correct the mistake. At first, a decision was reached to allow "Shine" to stand and to add "Chime" as an exception. But this would have made six finalists when each catagory is normally allowed five. Finally, the Foundation chose to ask for withdrawal rather than add a sixth book.

Officially, the Foundation has issued this statement regarding the incident:

"The National Book Foundation regrets that an error was made in the original announcement of the Finalists for the 2011 National Book Award in Young People's Literature and apologizes for any confusion and hurt it may have caused Lauren Myracle. At her suggestion we will be pleased to make a $5,000 donation to the Matthew Shepard Foundation in her name."

While the whole affair has no doubt been extremely disappointing to Myracle, the fact remains that even a mistaken announcement can acheive the purpose of actually being a finalist. "Shine" has experienced a marked increase in sales all the same.

Source:

David Stableford, "Accidental National Book Award finalist withdraws from competition", October 17, 2011, The Cutline, Yahoo! Inc.