Time to Vote for the Best National Book Award Fiction

Previously we wrote about how the National Book Foundation is celebrating its 60th anniversary by post a book-a-day blog highlighting the 77 winners (this is well worth perusing, hopefully the National Book Foundation will retain a link on their site) and then choosing the best of the best.  How is the best chosen?

First, over 600 writers were sent e-mails asking them to pick their top three National Book Award winners.  The top six were released today and now the public has a month to vote for their favorite.  America, here are your top six finalists (my attempt to sound like Ryan Seacrest):

Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison

The Stories of John Cheever

The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty

Gravity’s Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon

The Collected Stories of William Faulkner

The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor (which maybe compensates for not winning the award for A Good Man is Hard to Find)

I’m surprised that four of the six are collections of short stories.  Short stories get short shrift (try saying that five times fast), maybe this will throw some light on their beauty and importance. 

Who will you vote for?  I’m going back and forth between Ellison, Cheever and Welty and am enjoying the choice too much to make a decision just yet.  Don’t worry if you haven’t read them all, advocate for your favorite.  Even better, go back and read the ones you haven’t read before October 21st so you can make a fully informed vote.  But vote.