Feature

Overheard: What the Audience Really Thought about NBCC Nominations Party (vs. National Book Awards)

Housing Works Used Book Café January 22, 2005

Published May 21, 2005

Laurel Touby, “Of the Sixties Generation,” Founder of mediabistro.com
Well, I haven’t been to the National Book Awards. I like that they let me in here.

Marie Ponsot,83, Poet
This is more fun than sitting at those tables that have everybody solemnly looking through candlelight at each other.

Amanda Stern,34, Author and Organizer of Happy Ending Music and Reading Series
This is the closest to the Oscars I’ll ever get. It’s certainly as dressed-up as I’ll ever get.

John Figueroa,38, Comic-Book Writer, DC and Marvel
I like this. It’s low-key. But they should have shots, and they should turn the music up so we can all dance at some point.

Jonathan Lethem,40, Novelist
What [the NBCC] has on its side is authenticity and human scale. The NBA was a wonderful spectacle. I’m glad both exist.

Photographs by Jada Yuan for New York Magazine