Faust Book a Contender for National Book Award

This Republic of Suffering is among the finalists in the nonfiction category...

This Republic of Suffering, University president Drew Faust's account of the Civil War's staggering death toll and how it changed Americans' view of death, is among the finalists in the nonfiction category for the National Book Award. The full list, released today, is available here; read the New York Times account here. To read excerpts from Faust’s book, see "In My Mind I Am Perplexed;"  see also "The Deadliest War."

Faust's book is one of five finalists in the category. Another is The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, a biography of an American slave family owned by Thomas Jefferson, written by Annette Gordon-Reed, J.D. ’84.

Another alumni author is a finalist in the poetry category: Watching the Spring Festival, by Frank Bidart, A.M. ’67, is on that list.

Joan Wickersham, author of this magazine’s 2007 cover story “Bricks and Politics: What gets built at Harvard, what doesn’t, and why,” was also nominated in the nonfiction category for a memoir, The Suicide Index: Putting My Father’s Death in Order.

A winner for each of the four categories—which also include fiction and young people's literature—will be announced on November 19.

You might also like

The 2025 Pulitzer Prizes Announced

Winners across five categories, from commentary on Gaza to criticism on public architecture

Off the Shelf

Operatic counterculture, a Passover graphic novel, James Joyce’s biographer, and more

Jessie Cox

An experimental percussionist-composer pushing the limits of music

Most popular

FAS Dean Outlines Preparations for Loss of Federal Funding

“To preserve our mission, we must act now,” Hoekstra says at faculty meeting

Danielle Allen Debates Far-Right Blogger Curtis Yarvin

Popular monarchist debates Allen on democracy.

The New Gender Gaps

What to do as men and boys fall behind

Explore More From Current Issue

The Estate Behind Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park

Park offers art, nature, and history in New Hampshire

Lawrence Bacow on the Auschwitz Memorial

President Lawrence S. Bacow reflects on the liberation of Auschwitz

The Sum of Our Choices

On the limitations of a prevailing worldview