National Book Award 2012: Colum McCan, Jesmyn Ward and Five Years of Fiction Winners

It’s the same award that was won by John Updike and Philip Roth, but for some meaningful revisions: this year's National Book Awards will look more like an actual award show and less like a literary gathering. The carpet will be redder, the stage brighter and the nominees — including Junot Diaz, Louise Erdrich and Dave Eggers — enter with bigger names.

For a full list of this year's nominees click here.