a coincidence, or what? the winners of this year's national book awards for fiction and non-fiction respectively both hail from sacramento. the non-fiction winner, joan didion, was born and raised here. tho she is a long-time resident of nyc, she has written extensively about her childhood and adolescence in n ca.

while the fiction award went to sacramento resident william t. vollmann who is said to haunt several local dive bars. i've seen him once at tower books with his wife and child buying a shitload of books.

i've read somewhere that the poetry award winner w.s.merwin has lived a long time in hawaii, was born in nyc and raised on the east coast. but he really wanted to be from sacramento, and is working really hard toward achieving that goal.