2011 US National Book Award winners announced

National Book Award winners (from left to rght) Stephen Greenblatt, Thanhha Lai, Nikky Finney and Jesmyn Ward

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward won the 2011 US National Book Award for fiction while,
Nikky Finney's Head Off and Split took the poetry prize, Thanhha Lai's Inside Out and Back Again won the award for young people's literature and Stephen Greenblatt's The Swerve, triumphed in the non-fiction category.

Award winning books

In her acceptance speech, Ward said the death of her younger brother - who was hit by a drunk driver when she was in college - had inspired her to become a writer.
She said she realised life was a "feeble, unpredictable thing," but that books were a testament of strength in the face of a punishing world.
Greenblatt, tearful in victory, noted the miracle of words in making an ancient poet such as Lucretius matter so greatly centuries later.
University of Kentucky creative writing professor Finney also gave a poetic acceptance speech for her work, which delves into African-American life.
Actor John Lithgow, the show's host, called it "the best acceptance speech for anything that I've heard in my entire life".
The winners of the awards - which are among the most prestigious in US publishing - each received $10,000 (£6,400).