Graphic novel one of 20 up for National Book Award

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 12 (Reuters) A love story told in free-verse, a graphic novel detailing the life of a young Chinese-American boy and two books set in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks were among the 20 National Book Award finalists announced.

Harold Augenbraum, the executive director of the group that sponsors the prestigious literary awards, said the list of nominees was the most unconventional in many years because so many different narrative approaches were used.

Past winners of the prize include some of the most famous names in American literature, including William Faulkner, Philip Roth, John Updike, Ralph Ellison and Bernard Malamud.

The 2006 finalists were chosen from among a record 1,259 entries submitted by publishers in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people's literature.

They include Gene Luen Yang, a Chinese-American comic artist whose ''American Born Chinese'' is the first graphic novel ever nominated for a National Book Award. It was nominated in the category of Young People's Literature.

Other finalists in that category include: M T Anderson's ''The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol.1: The Pox Party,'' Martine Leavitt's ''Keturah and Lord Death,'' Patricia McCormick's ''Sold'' and Nancy Werlin's ''The Rules of Survival.'' In the fiction category the finalists are: Ken Kalfus'''A Disorder Peculiar to the Country,'' a black comedy following the unraveling of a marriage in the aftermath of 9/11, Mark Danielewski's free verse novel ''Only Revolutions,'' Richard Powers' ''The Echo Maker,'' Dana Spiotta's ''Eat the Document'' and Jess Walter's ''The Zero.'' In the nonfiction category, ''At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68'' by Taylor Branch was joined by Rajiv Chandrasekaran's ''Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone,'' Timothy Egan's ''The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl,'' Peter Hessler's ''Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present'' and Lawrence Wright's ''The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11.'' For poetry, Louise Gluck's ''Averno,'' H L Hix's ''Chromatic,'' Ben Lerner's ''Angle of Yaw,'' Nathaniel Mackey's ''Splay Anthem,'' and James McMichael's ''Capacity'' made up the list of finalists.

The awards will be announced on November 15.

REUTERS DH RAI0624