October 22, 2001

English professor Marilyn Nelson has been nominated for the National Book Award for her latest book, Carver: A Life in Poems. The nomination is in the young people's literature category.

The book tells in verse the story of African-American botanist and inventor George Washington Carver.

The nomination is one of several honors Nelson has received this year. She has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and was recently named Connecticut's Poet Laureate.

In addition, Carver: A Life in Poems was awarded a 2001 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Excellence in Children's Literature, in the fiction and poetry category.

"I really believe in this book, particularly because it's very much fueled by the spirit of George Washington Carver," Nelson says. "We need to pay more attention to him."

Among Nelson's many honors, she has had two other books named as finalists for the National Book Award: The Homeplace (1991) and The Fields of Praise (1997).

The National Book Awards will be given out during a ceremony in Manhattan on Nov. 14. Winners receive $10,000, and runners-up receive $1,000.

Allison Thompson