In December 1996, Salon published its first Book Awards, a list of the top fiction and nonfiction titles that year, compiled and judged by Laura Miller and Dwight Garner. The feature quickly became an annual Salon staple, a key fixture during our early years. Compiled below are links and the list of winners from the first Salon Book Awards, part of our SalonAt20 celebration.
In their introduction, “Books of the Year,” Laura Miller and Dwight Garner explain how they picked the winners and what qualities they fell in love with.
Laura Miller interviewed James Ellroy, 1996’s Best Books Winner for My Dark Places, in “Oedipus Wreck.”
For full summaries by Laura Miller and Dwight Garner's of the 1996 winners, please visit our old archived page, Salon's First Book Awards.
Fiction
The Family Markowitz by Allegra Goodman
Reader’s Block by David Markson
The Giant’s House by Elizabeth McCracken
The Moor’s Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Nonfiction
My Dark Places by James Ellroy
The Shadow Man by Mary Gordon
The Temple Bombing by Melissa Fay Greene
The Living and the Dead by Paul Hendrickson
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
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