The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book Awards, was established. The mission of the National Book Foundation is "to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America." The awards ceremony is held each November in New York City.

National Book Awards are given in each of four categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people's literature. Awards have been given in various other categories since 1950, but they have since been retired or subsumed into the remaining categories. The National Book Foundation also presents two lifetime achievement awards each year: the "Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters" and the "Literarian Award."

Only publishers can submit books for the National Book Award. Each category is overseen by an independent and expert five-member judging panel. Panels typically consider hundreds of books per category each year. A total of twenty Finalists (five per category) are announced in October. A chair from each panel announces the Winner during the "National Book Awards Ceremony and Dinner" held in November. Winners each receive a $10,000 cash prize and a bronze sculpture; Finalists each receive $1,000, a medal, and a citation from the panel jury.

The Foundation has expanded its celebration of American literature by creating National Book Awards Week. Beginning with 5 Under 35, which spotlights emerging fiction writers as selected and introduced by National Book Award Winners and Finalists. The event calendar continues with the National Book Awards Teen Press Conference, the private National Book Awards Medal Ceremony, and the National Book Award Finalists Reading, and culminates in the Awards Ceremony, focusing attention on the best writing in America.

Winners of the National Book Awards

List of winners of the National Book Award

Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters

The "Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters" (DCAL) is a lifetime achievement award. The medal comes with a cash prize of $10,000. The recipient is a person who "has enriched American literary heritage over a life of service, or a corpus of work."

1991: Eudora Welty

1992: James Laughlin

1993: Clifton Fadiman

1994: Gwendolyn Brooks

1995: David McCullough

1996: Toni Morrison

1997: Studs Terkel

1998: John Updike

1999: Oprah Winfrey

2000: Ray Bradbury

2001: Arthur Miller

2002: Philip Roth

2003: Stephen King

2004: Judy Blume

2005: Norman Mailer

2006: Adrienne Rich

2007: Joan Didion

2008: Maxine Hong Kingston

2009: Gore Vidal

2010: Tom Wolfe

Literarian Award

The "Literarian Award" is a lifetime achievement award. It is "presented to an individual for outstanding service to the American literary community, whose life and work exemplify the goals of the National Book Foundation to expand the audience for literature and to enhance the cultural value of literature in America."

2005: Lawrence Ferlinghetti

2006: Robert B. Silvers and Barbara Epstein

2007: Terry Gross

2008: Barney Rosset

2009: Dave Eggers

2010: Joan Ganz Cooney

See also

The Man Booker Prize

The Commonwealth Writers Prize

The Prix Goncourt

The Costa Book Awards, formerly the Whitbread Book Awards

The Governor General's Award

Literary festival

Notes

External links

Official website

Interview with 2002 National Book Award winner Julia Glass

Category:American literary awards Category:Poetry awards Category:Awards established in 1950 Category:Fiction awards

de:National Book Award es:National Book Award fr:National Book Award hi:अमेरिका का राष्ट्रिय पुस्तक पुरस्कार it:National Book Award la:National Book Award lt:National Book Award hu:Nemzeti Könyvdíj (USA) nl:National Book Award ja:全米図書賞 nn:National Book Award pl:National Book Award pt:National Book Award simple:National Book Award sv:National Book Award th:รางวัลหนังสือแห่งชาติ zh:美國國家圖書獎

A literary award is an award presented to an author who has written a particularly lauded piece or body of work. There are awards for forms of writing ranging from poetry to novels. Many awards are also dedicated to a certain genre of fiction or non-fiction writing (such as science fiction or politics). Most literary awards come with a corresponding award ceremony.

Some of the most notable literary prizes include the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Man Booker Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the Whitbread Awards, the Neustadt Prize and the Hugo Awards.

In recent years, some media corporations have sponsored new literary prizes, including the Quill Awards, which were first awarded in 2005 and The Ireland Funds AWB Vincent Literary Award in 2000.

There are also spoof awards, such as The ''Literary Review'' Bad Sex in Fiction Award, the Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, and the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction and Lyttle Lytton Contests, which are both given to deliberately bad sentences.

See also

List of literary awards

List of poetry awards

List of the world's richest literary prizes

Literary festival

External links

Book Prize Information: database of literary awards

Author Ranking by Literary Awards: ranked lists of authors that received prominent literary award honors

Best books of: 2008, 2009, 2000-2009, 2010, Year-end "Best Books" lists aggregated at Largehearted Boy.

"The Art of Prize-Fighting", by Tom Chatfield in ''Prospect Magazine'', January 2009. Essay on the history and merit of modern literary prizes.

"75 Notes For An Unwritten Essay on Literary Prizes", by Matthew Hunte, at "The Busy Signal" November 27 2010. Essay-notes on the history of literary prizes.

*

de:Literaturpreis et:Kirjandusauhindade loend es:Premio literario eo:Literaturpremioj fa:جایزه ادبی fr:Prix littéraire fy:Literatuerpriis ko:문학상 it:Premio letterario hu:Irodalmi díj nl:Lijst van literatuurprijzen ja:文学賞 oc:Prèmi literari pl:Nagrody literackie pt:Anexo:Lista de prémios literários ro:Premiu literar ru:Литературная премия

Coordinates	28°36′50″N77°12′32″N
name	Sherman Alexie
Birth name	Sherman Joseph Alexie, Jr.
birth date	October 07, 1966
birth place	Wellpinit, Washington
occupation	Poet, Short-Story Writer, Novelist, Screenwriter, Filmmaker
nationality	Spokane/Coeur d'Alene/American
genre	Native American literature, Humor, Documentary fiction
movement	Indigenous Nationalism
notableworks	''The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian'', ''Smoke Signals'' (film)
awards	American Book Award, National Book Award, PEN/Hemingway, PEN/Faulkner}}

Sherman Joseph Alexie, Jr. (born October 7, 1966) is a writer, poet, filmmaker, and occasional comedian. Much of his writing draws on his experiences as a Native American. Two of Alexie's best known works are ''The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven'' (1994), a book of short stories and ''Smoke Signals'', a film. ''The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian'', a semi-autobiographical young adult novel, was his latest commercial success. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

Personal

Sherman Alexie was born on October 7, 1966 in the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. He was born with hydrocephalus, which caused him to suffer from seizures throughout his childhood. Alexie made the conscious decision to leave his reservation and attend Reardan High School, where he knew he would receive a better education.

In 1985, Alexie enrolled at Gonzaga University on a scholarship. In 1987, he transferred to Washington State University (WSU), where he fell under the influence of Alexander Kuo. Kuo inspired Alexie to write poetry, and soon after graduating, Alexie published his first collection of poems, ''The Business of Fancy Dancing,'' through Hanging Loose Press.

In 2005, Alexie became a founding Board Member of Longhouse Media, a non-profit organization that is committed to teaching filmmaking skills to Native American youth, and to use media for cultural expression and social change. Mr. Alexie has long supported youth programs and initiatives dedicated to uplifting at-risk Native youth.

Alexie is married to Diane Tomhave, who is of Hidatsa, Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi heritage. They live in Seattle with their two sons.

Basketball

Alexie is also noted for his love of basketball, both as an audience member and a player. He is a loyal and enthusiastic supporter of the now relocated Seattle SuperSonics. His writings on the sport are frequently cited by notable basketball writers, such as ESPN's Henry Abbott.

Prior to the SuperSonics' relocation, the City of Seattle filed a lawsuit against the team's ownership group headed by businessman Clayton Bennett in an attempt to force the team to play out the remainder of its lease (which was to expire in 2010) in Seattle's KeyArena. Alexie testified in favor of the city, stressing the importance of the Sonics to Seattle's culture and community, as well as to individual fans - an experience that he would later describe as the "most terrifying and stressful public speaking gig I've ever had to endure." However, the City of Seattle settled with the ownership group, permitting the team to break its lease and move to Oklahoma City for the following season, in exchange for a multi-million dollar cash settlement. Despite the personal and communal loss, Alexie retains his love for the game, and continues to follow professional basketball passionately.

Works

Alexie's stories have been included in several prestigious short story anthologies, including ''The Best American Short Stories'' 2004, edited by Lorrie Moore; and ''Pushcart Prize'' XXIX of the Small Presses. Additionally, a number of his pieces have been published in various literary magazines and journals, as well as online publications.

Poetry

''On The Amtrak from Boston to New York City'' (1990)

''The Business of Fancydancing'' (1991)

''I Would Steal Horses'' (1992)

''Old Shirts and New Skins'' (1993)

Postcards to Columbus (1993)

''First Indian on the Moon'' (1993)

''Seven Mourning Songs For the Cedar Flute I Have Yet to Learn to Play'' (1993)

''Water Flowing Home'' (1995)

''The Summer of Black Widows'' (1996)

''The Man Who Loves Salmon'' (1998)

''One Stick Song'' (2000)

''Dangerous Astronomy'' (2005)

''Face'' (2009), Hanging Loose Press (April 15, 2009) hardcover, 160 pages, ISBN 978-1931236713

"SHOES"

Fiction by Sherman Alexie

''The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven'' Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd (February 28, 1994), hardcover: 224 pages, ISBN 978-0436201905

''Reservation Blues'' (1995)

''Indian Killer'' (1996)

''The Toughest Indian in the World'' (2000) (collection of short stories)

''Ten Little Indians'' (2003)

''Flight (2007 novel)''

''The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian'' Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; 1st edition (September 12, 2007), hardcover, 230 pages, ISBN 978-0316013680

''War Dances'' (2009)

*"Fiction Chronicle" review of ''War Dances'' by Jan Stuart, Sunday Book Review, ''The New York Times'' October 22, 2009

Films

''Smoke Signals'' (writer, 1998; adapted from a short story, "This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona" in ''Lone Ranger and Tonto'')

''The Business of Fancydancing'' (writer and director, 2002)

''49?'' (writer, 2003)

''The Exiles'' (presenter, 2008)

Awards and honors

1992: National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship

The New York Times Book Review Notable book of the Year for ''The Business of Fancydancing''

1996: Before Columbus Foundation: American Book Award

Granta Magazine: Twenty Best American Novelists Under the Age of 40

New York Times Notable Book for ''Indian Killer''

People Magazine: Best of Pages

1999: The New Yorker: 20 Writers for the 21st Century

2007: National Book Award prize for Young People's literature for ''The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian''

2010: PEN/Faulkner Award for ''War Dances''

2010: Native Writers' Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award

2010: recipient of the Puterbaugh award, the first American Puterbaugh fellow

2010: California Young Reader Medal for ''The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian''

Translators of Sherman Alexie's works

Alexie's works have been translated into many languages. His translators include:

Czech - Jiri Hruby, Lubos Snizek

Hebrew - Lia Nirgad

Hungarian - Zoltán Holbok

Japanese - Mizuhito Kanehara

Punjabi - Gurjap Toor

Swahili - Kudus Babatunde Akinwande

Swedish - Ingela Jernberg

Persian - Amir Mehdi Haghighat

Tamil - Velupillai Prabhakaran

French - Valérie Le Plouhinec

Finnish - Jussi Hirvi

See also

List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas

Native American Renaissance

Native American studies

Notes and references

Nygren, Åse. "A World of Story-Smoke: A Conversation with Sherman Alexie." ''MELUS'' 30.4 (Winter 2005): 149-169.

West, Dennis, and Joan M. West. "Sending Cinematic Smoke Signals: An Interview with Sherman Alexie". ''Cineaste'' 23.41998 29-33.

Alexie, Sherman; Bill Clinton and Tom Lehrer. "A Dialogue on Race with President Clinton". ''News Hour'' (July 9, 1998).

External links and further reading

Fallsapart.com, Official Sherman Alexie Site

OPB.org, Interview on Oregon Public Broadcasting radio show Think Out Loud (aired October 8, 2009)

"In His Own Literary World, a Native Son Without Borders" article by Eric Konigsberg in ''The New York Times'' October 20, 2009

Category:American film directors Category:American novelists Category:American short story writers Category:American poets Category:American screenwriters Category:American comedians Category:People from Seattle, Washington Category:People from Stevens County, Washington Category:Coeur d'Alene tribe Category:Native American writers Category:Native American novelists Category:Native American poets Category:Roman Catholic writers Category:Gonzaga University alumni Category:Washington State University alumni Category:1966 births Category:Living people Category:Native American children's literature Category:Postmodern writers

an:Sherman Alexie bg:Шърман Алекси ca:Sherman Alexie cs:Sherman Alexie de:Sherman Alexie fr:Sherman Alexie it:Sherman Alexie ja:シャーマン・アレクシー pt:Sherman Alexie fi:Sherman Alexie sv:Sherman Alexie

Marjorie B. Garber (born 11 June 1944) is a professor at Harvard University and the author of a wide variety of books, most notably ones about William Shakespeare and aspects of popular culture including sexuality.

She wrote ''Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety'', a ground breaking theoretical work on transvestitism's contribution to culture. Other works include ''Sex and Real Estate:Why We Love Houses'', ''Academic Instincts'', ''Vice Versa: Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life'', ''Shakespeare After All'', and ''Dog Love'' (which is not primarily about bestiality, except for one chapter titled "Sex and the Single Dog").

Her book ''Shakespeare After All'' (Pantheon, 2004) was chosen one of Newsweek's ten best nonfiction books of the year, and was awarded the 2005 Christian Gauss Book Award from Phi Beta Kappa

She was educated at Swarthmore College (B.A., 1966; L.H.D., 2004) and Yale University (Ph.D., 1969). Formerly the director of Harvard's Humanities Center, she is now the chair of its department of Visual and Environmental Studies and director of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. She continues to teach courses on Shakespeare and on modern culture in the department of English and American Literature and Language.

Selected bibliography

References

External links

Marjorie Garber's home page

Interview with Charlie Rose about ''Vice Versa''

Category:1944 births Category:Living people Category:American relationships and sexuality writers Category:American social sciences writers Category:Bisexual writers Category:Harvard University faculty Category:LGBT writers from the United States Category:Shakespearean scholars Category:Swarthmore College alumni Category:Yale University alumni

pt:Marjorie Garber

Coordinates	28°36′50″N77°12′32″N
name	Patti Smith
background	solo_singer
birth name	Patricia Lee Smith
birth date	December 30, 1946
birth place	Chicago, Illinois, USA
origin	New York City, New York
instrument	Vocals, guitar, clarinet
genre	Protopunk, punk rock,
occupation	Singer-songwriter, poet, artist
years active	1971–present
label	Arista, Columbia
Associated acts	Tom Verlaine
website	}}

Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album ''Horses''.

Called the "Godmother of Punk", her work was a fusion of rock and poetry. Smith's most widely known song is "Because the Night", which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen and reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978. In 2005, Patti Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, and in 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On November 17, 2010, she won the National Book Award for her memoir ''Just Kids''. She is also a recipient of the 2011 Polar Music Prize.

Life and career

1946–1973: Early life

Patricia Lee Smith was born in Chicago. Her mother, Beverly, was a waitress, and her father, Grant, worked at the Honeywell plant. She spent her entire childhood in Deptford Township, New Jersey, raised Jehovah's Witness. She had a strong religious upbringing and a Bible education, but left organized religion as a teenager because she felt it was too confining; much later, she wrote the line "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine" in her cover version of Them's "Gloria" in response to this experience. She has described having an avid interest in Tibetan Buddhism around the age of eleven or twelve, saying "I fell in love with Tibet because their essential mission was to keep a continual stream of prayer", but that as an adult she sees clear parallels between different forms of religion, and has come to the conclusion that religious dogmas are "...man-made laws that you can either decide to abide by or not." At this early age Smith was exposed to her first records, including ''Shrimp Boats'' by Harry Belafonte, Patience and Prudence doing ''The Money Tree'', and ''Another Side of Bob Dylan'', which her mother gave to her. Smith graduated from Deptford Township High School in 1964 and went to work in a factory. She gave birth to her first child, a daughter, on April 26, 1967, and chose to place her for adoption.

1967–1973: New York

In 1967, she left Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) and moved to New York City. She met photographer Robert Mapplethorpe there while working at a book store with a friend, poet Janet Hamill. She and Mapplethorpe had an intense romantic relationship, which was tumultuous as the pair struggled with times of poverty, and Mapplethorpe with his own sexuality. Smith considers Mapplethorpe to be one of the most important people in her life, and in her book ''Just Kids'' refers to him as "the artist of my life". Mapplethorpe's photographs of her became the covers for the Patti Smith Group LPs, and they remained friends until Mapplethorpe's death in 1989. In 1969 she went to Paris with her sister and started busking and doing performance art. When Smith returned to New York City, she lived in the Hotel Chelsea with Mapplethorpe; they frequented Max's Kansas City and CBGB. Smith provided the spoken word soundtrack for Sandy Daley's art film ''Robert Having His Nipple Pierced'', starring Mapplethorpe. The same year Smith appeared with Wayne County in Jackie Curtis' play ''Femme Fatale''. As a member of the St. Mark's Poetry Project, she spent the early 70's painting, writing, and performing. In 1971 she performed – for one night only – in ''Cowboy Mouth'', a play that she co-wrote with Sam Shepard (The published play's notes call for "a man who looks like a coyote and a woman who looks like a crow".) She wrote several poems, "for sam shepard" and "Sam Shepard: 9 Random Years (7 + 2)" about her relationship with Shepard.

Smith was briefly considered for the lead singer position in Blue Öyster Cult. She contributed lyrics to several of the band's songs, including "Debbie Denise" (inspired by her poem "In Remembrance of Debbie Denise"), "Baby Ice Dog", "Career of Evil", "Fire of Unknown Origin", "The Revenge of Vera Gemini" (on which she performs duet vocals), and "Shooting Shark". She was romantically involved at the time with the band's keyboardist Allen Lanier. During these years, Smith also wrote rock journalism, some of which was published in ''Rolling Stone'' and ''Creem''.

1974–1979: Patti Smith Group

By 1974, Patti Smith was performing rock music herself, initially with guitarist, bassist and rock archivist Lenny Kaye, and later with a full band comprising Kaye, Ivan Kral on guitar and bass, Jay Dee Daugherty on drums and Richard Sohl on piano. Ivan Kral was a refugee from Czechoslovakia, fleeing in 1968 after the fall of Alexander Dubček. Financed by Sam Wagstaff, the band recorded a first single, "Hey Joe / Piss Factory", in 1974. The A-side was a version of the rock standard with the addition of a spoken word piece about fugitive heiress Patty Hearst ("Patty Hearst, you're standing there in front of the Symbionese Liberation Army flag with your legs spread, I was wondering were you gettin' it every night from a black revolutionary man and his women..."). The B-side describes the helpless anger Smith had felt while working on a factory assembly line and the salvation she discovered in the form of a shoplifted book, the 19th century French poet Arthur Rimbaud's ''Illuminations''.

The Patti Smith Group was signed by Clive Davis of Arista Records, and in 1975 recorded their first album, ''Horses'', produced by John Cale amid some tension. The album fused punk rock and spoken poetry and begins with a cover of Van Morrison's "Gloria", and Smith's opening words: "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine" (an excerpt from "Oath," one of her early poems). The austere cover photograph by Mapplethorpe has become one of rock's classic images. As the popularity of punk rock grew, Patti Smith Group toured the United States and Europe. The rawer sound of the group's second album, ''Radio Ethiopia'', reflected this. Considerably less accessible than ''Horses'', ''Radio Ethiopia'' initially received poor reviews. However, several of its songs have stood the test of time, and Smith still performs them regularly in concert. She has said that ''Radio Ethiopia'' was influenced by the band MC5.

On January 23, 1977, while touring in support of ''Radio Ethiopia'', Smith accidentally danced off a high stage in Tampa, Florida, and fell 15 feet into a concrete orchestra pit, breaking several neck vertebrae. The injury required a period of rest and an intensive round of physical therapy, during which time she was able to reassess, re-energize and reorganize her life. Patti Smith Group produced two further albums before the end of the 1970s. ''Easter'' (1978) was her most commercially successful record, containing the single "Because the Night" co-written with Bruce Springsteen. ''Wave'' (1979) was less successful, although the songs "Frederick" and "Dancing Barefoot" both received commercial airplay.

1980–1995: Marriage

Before the release of ''Wave'', Smith, now separated from long-time partner Allen Lanier, met Fred "Sonic" Smith, former guitar player for Detroit rock band MC5 and his own Sonic's Rendezvous Band, who adored poetry as much as she did. (''Wave'''s "Dancing Barefoot" and "Frederick" were both dedicated to him.) The running joke at the time was that she married Fred only because she would not have to change her name. They had a son, Jackson (b. 1982) who would go on to marry The White Stripes drummer, Meg White in 2009; and a daughter, Jesse (b. 1987). Through most of the 1980s Patti Smith was in semi-retirement from music, living with her family north of Detroit in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. In June 1988, she released the album ''Dream of Life'', which included the song "People Have the Power". Fred Smith died on November 4, 1994, of a heart attack. Shortly afterward, Patti faced the unexpected death of her brother Todd and original keyboard player Richard Sohl. When her son Jackson turned 14, Smith decided to move back to New York. After the impact of these deaths, her friends Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and Allen Ginsberg (whom she had known since her early years in New York) urged her to go back out on the road. She toured briefly with Bob Dylan in December 1995 (chronicled in a book of photographs by Stipe).

1996–2003: Re-emergence

In 1996, Smith worked with her long-time colleagues to record ''Gone Again,'' featuring "About a Boy", a tribute to Kurt Cobain. Smith was a fan of Cobain, but was more angered than saddened by his suicide. That same year she collaborated with Stipe on "E-Bow the Letter", a song on R.E.M.'s ''New Adventures in Hi-Fi,'' which she has also performed live with the band. After release of ''Gone Again,'' Patti Smith had recorded two new albums: ''Peace and Noise'' in 1997 (with the single "1959", about the invasion of Tibet) and ''Gung Ho'' in 2000 (with songs about Ho Chi Minh and Smith's late father). Songs "1959" and "Glitter in Their Eyes" were nominated for Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. A box set of her work up to that time, ''The Patti Smith Masters,'' came out in 1996, and 2002 saw the release of ''Land (1975–2002),'' a two-CD compilation that includes a memorable cover of Prince's "When Doves Cry". Smith's solo art exhibition ''Strange Messenger'' was hosted at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh on September 28, 2002.

2004–present

On April 27, 2004, Patti Smith released ''Trampin''' which included several songs about motherhood, partly in tribute to Smith's mother, who had died two years before. It was her first album on Columbia Records, soon to become a sister label to her previous home Arista Records. Smith curated the Meltdown festival in London on June 25, 2005, the penultimate event being the first live performance of ''Horses'' in its entirety. Guitarist Tom Verlaine took Oliver Ray's place. This live performance was released later in the year as ''Horses/Horses''.

On July 10, 2005, Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. In addition to Smith's influence on rock music, the Minister also noted her appreciation of Arthur Rimbaud. In August 2005, Smith gave a literary lecture about the poems of Arthur Rimbaud and William Blake. On October 15, 2006, Patti Smith performed at the CBGB nightclub, with a 3½-hour ''tour de force'' to close out Manhattan's music venue. She took the stage at 9:30 p.m. (EDT) and closed for the night (and forever for the venue) at a few minutes after 1:00 a.m., performing her song "Elegie", and finally reading a list of punk rock musicians and advocates who had died in the previous years.

On November 10, 2005, Smith received the Woman of Valor Award from ROCKRGRL Magazine at the ROCKRGRL Music Conference, marking the 30th Anniversary of the release of "Horses."

Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 12, 2007. From November 2006 - January 2007, an exhibition called 'Sur les Traces' at Trolley Gallery, London, featured polaroid prints taken by Patti Smith and donated to Trolley to raise awareness and funds for the publication of Double Blind, a book on the war in Lebanon in 2006, with photographs by Paolo Pellegrin, a member of Magnum Photos. She also participated in the DVD commentary for ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters''. From March 28 to June 22, 2008, the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain in Paris hosted a major exhibition of the visual artwork of Patti Smith, ''Land 250'', drawn from pieces created between 1967 and 2007. At the 2008 Rowan Commencement ceremony, Smith received an honorary doctorate degree for her contributions to popular culture. Smith is the subject of a 2008 documentary film, ''Patti Smith: Dream of Life''. A live album by Patti Smith and Kevin Shields, ''The Coral Sea'' was released in July 2008. On September 10, 2009, after a week of smaller events and exhibitions in the city, Smith played an open-air concert in Florence's Piazza Santa Croce, commemorating her performance in the same city 30 years earlier. In 2010, Patti Smith's book, ''Just Kids'', a memoir of her time in 1970s Manhattan and her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, was published; it later won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. On April 30, 2010, Patti Smith headlined a benefit concert headed by band-mate Tony Shanahan, for The Court Tavern of New Brunswick. Smith's set included "Gloria", "Because the Night" and "People Have the Power." She has a brief cameo in Jean-Luc Godard's 2010 ''Film Socialisme'', which was first screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

On May 17, 2010, Patti Smith received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Pratt Institute, along with architect Daniel Libeskind, MoMA director Glenn Lowry, former NYC Landmarks Commissioner Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, novelist Jonathan Lethem, and director Steven Soderbergh. Following the conferral of her degree, Smith delivered the commencement address and sang/played two songs accompanied by long-time band member Lenny Kaye. In her remarks, Smith explained that in 1967 when she moved to New York City (Brooklyn), she would never have been accepted into Pratt, but most of her friends (including Mapplethorpe) were students at Pratt and she spent countless hours on the Pratt campus. She added that it was through her friends and their Pratt professors that she learned much of her own artistic skills, making the honour from the institute particularly poignant for Smith 43 years later.

Smith is currently working on a crime novel set in London. "I've been working on a detective story that starts at the St Giles in the Fields church in London for the last two years," she told NME adding that she "loved detective stories" having been a fan of Sherlock Holmes and US crime author Mickey Spillane as a girl. Part of the book will be set in Gothenburg, Sweden.

On May 3, 2011, it was announced that Patti Smith is one of the winners of the Polar Music Prize: "By devoting her life to art in all its forms, Patti Smith has demonstrated how much rock’n'roll there is in poetry and how much poetry there is in rock’n'roll. Patti Smith is a Rimbaud with Marshall amps. She has transformed the way an entire generation looks, thinks and dreams. With her inimitable soul of an artist, Patti Smith proves over and over again that people have the power."

On June 19, 2011, Patti Smith made her television acting debut on the TV series ''Law & Order: Criminal Intent'', appearing in an episode called "Icarus".

Smith has recorded a cover of Buddy Holly's classic "Words of Love" for the CD ''Rave On Buddy Holly'', a tribute album tied to Holly's seventy-fifth birthday year which was released June 28, 2011.

Smith is also contributing a track to "AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered", a U2 covers album due to be released through Q Magazine on October 25th. Smith recorded a cover of "Until The End Of The World" for the compilation.

In February 2012, she was a guest at the Sanremo Music Festival.

Influence

Smith has been a great source of inspiration for Michael Stipe of R.E.M. Listening to her album ''Horses'' when he was 15 made a huge impact on him; he said later, "I decided then that I was going to start a band." In 1998, Stipe published a collection of photos called ''Two Times Intro: On the Road with Patti Smith.'' Stipe sings backing vocals on Smith's songs "Last Call" and "Glitter in Their Eyes." Patti also sings background vocals on R.E.M.'s songs "E-Bow the Letter" and "Blue".

The Australian alternative rock band, The Go-Betweens dedicated a track off their 1994 album The Friends of Rachel Worth, ''When She Sang About Angels'' in reference to Smith's long time influence on themselves.

In 2004, Shirley Manson of Garbage spoke of Smith's influence on her in ''Rolling Stone'''s issue "The Immortals: 100 Greatest Artists of All Time", in which Patti Smith was counted number 47. The Smiths members Morrissey and Johnny Marr shared an appreciation for Smith's ''Horses,'' and reveal that their song "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" is a reworking of one of the album's tracks, "Kimberly". In 2004, Sonic Youth released an album called ''Hidros 3 (to Patti Smith)''. U2 also cites Patti Smith as an influence. In 2005 Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall released the single "Suddenly I See" as a tribute of sorts to Patti Smith. Canadian actress Ellen Page frequently mentions Smith as one of her idols and has done various photo shoots replicating famous Smith photos. In 1978 and 1979, Gilda Radner portrayed a character called Candy Slice on ''Saturday Night Live'' based on Smith.

American pop-dance singer Madonna has also named Smith as one of her biggest influences.

Activism

In 1993, Smith contributed "Memorial Tribute (Live)" to the AIDS-Benefit Album No Alternative produced by the Red Hot Organization.

Furthermore, Smith has been a supporter of the Green Party and backed Ralph Nader in the 2000 United States presidential election. She led the crowd singing "Over the Rainbow" and "People Have the Power" at the campaign's rallies, and also performed at several of Nader's subsequent "Democracy Rising" events. Smith was a speaker and singer at the first protests against the Iraq War organized by Lou Posner of Voter March on September 12, 2002, as U.S. President George W. Bush spoke to the United Nations General Assembly. Smith supported Democratic candidate John Kerry in the 2004 election. Bruce Springsteen continued performing her "People Have the Power" at Vote for Change campaign events. In the winter of 2004/2005, Smith toured again with Nader in a series of rallies against the Iraq War and calls for the impeachment of George W. Bush.

Smith premiered two new protest songs in London in September 2006. Louise Jury, writing in ''The Independent'', characterized them as "an emotional indictment of American and Israeli foreign policy". Song "Qana"^[mp3] was about the Israeli airstrike on the Lebanese village of Qana. "Without Chains"^[mp3] is about Murat Kurnaz, a Turkish citizen who was born and raised in Germany, held at Guantanamo Bay detainment camp for four years. Jury's article quotes Smith as saying:

In an interview, Smith stated that Kurnaz's family has contacted her and that she wrote a short preface for the book that he was writing. Kurnaz's book, "Five Years of My Life," was published in English by Palgrave Macmillan in March 2008, with Patti's introduction.

On March 26, 2003, ten days after Rachel Corrie's death, Smith appeared in Austin, Texas, and performed an anti-war concert. She prefaced her song "Wild Leaves" with the following comments and subsequently wrote a new song "Peaceable Kingdom" which was inspired by and is dedicated to Rachel Corrie.

In 2009, in her Meltdown concert in Festival Hall, she paid homage to the Iranians taking part in post-election protests by saying "Where is My Vote?" in a version of the song "People Have the Power".

Band members

Discography

;Studio albums

''Horses'' (1975)

''Radio Ethiopia'' (1976)

''Easter'' (1978)

''Wave'' (1979)

''Dream of Life'' (1988)

''Gone Again'' (1996)

''Peace and Noise'' (1997)

''Gung Ho'' (2000)

''Trampin''' (2004)

''Twelve'' (2007)

''Banga'' (2012)

Bibliography

''Seventh Heaven'' (1972)

''Early Morning Dream'' (1972)

''Witt'' (1973)

''Ha! Ha! Houdini!'' (1977)

''Babel'' (1978)

''Woolgathering'' (1992)

''Early Work'' (1994)

''The Coral Sea'' (1996)

''Patti Smith Complete'' (1998)

''Strange Messenger'' (2003)

''Auguries of Innocence'' (2005)

''Poems (Vintage Classics)'' by William Blake. Edited by and with introduction by Patti Smith (2007)

''Land 250'' (2008)

''Trois'' (2008)

''Great Lyricists'' foreword Rick Moody (2008)

''Just Kids'' (2010)

References

Further reading

External links

Category:1946 births Category:American female guitarists Category:American human rights activists Category:American poets Category:American punk rock singers Category:American rock music groups Category:American rock singer-songwriters Category:American spoken word artists Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Category:Female punk rock singers Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Chicago, Illinois Category:National Book Award winners Category:Outlaw poets Category:Patti Smith Group members Category:People from Gloucester County, New Jersey Category:Postmodern writers Category:Protopunk musicians Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees‎ Category:Rowan University alumni Category:The Minus 5 members Category:Punk poets

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