The 2012 National Book Awards Finalists have been announced.

National Book Award finalists include Junot Diaz, Anthony Shadid

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In “Cyndi Lauper: A Memoir” published Sept. 18, the singer recalls going from IHOP waitress to ‘80s pop icon and activist-singer-mom. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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A memoir from Courtney Love, slated for fall 2012, has been postponed. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Duran Duran’s John Taylor, right, has written the memoir “In the Pleasure Groove: Love, Death, and Duran Duran,” which is being published this month. This 2011 photograph shows him with his original Duran Duran bandmates, minus guitarist Andy Taylor, who published the memoir “Wild Boy” in 2008. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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In his L.A. Times review, David L. Ulin writes that Neil Young’s memoir, “Waging Heavy Peace,” is “one of the most idiosyncratic rockstar autobiographies” he’s ever read. Review (David Fitzgerald / Los Angeles Times)

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The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger has not yet followed in bandmate Keith Richards’ footsteps with a memoir, but October sees the publication of the biography “Mick Jagger” by Philip Norman. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

By Carolyn Kellogg

Oct. 10, 2012 6:21 AM PT

<i>This post has been corrected. See note below.</i>

The National Book Foundationannounced the finalists for the National Book Awards on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show Wednesday.

Junot Diaz, who was recently named a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, is among the fiction finalists for his short-story collection, “This Is How You Lose Her.”

Two other fiction finalists -- Ben Fountain’s “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” and “The Yellow Birds” by Kevin Powers -- deal with America’s long military engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On a sad note, the nonfiction finalists include Anthony Shadid’s “House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East.” The New York Times journalist died earlier this year while covering the conflicts in the Middle East.

Also among those in the running are Katherine Boo for her book about an impoverished community in India, “Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity.”

The only Angeleno in the bunch is Carrie Arcos, whose novel “Out of Reach” -- which officially hits bookstore shelves next week -- is in among the finalists for young people’s literature.

Poetry finalist Susan Wheeler is a former Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, while poetry finalist Alan Shapiro is a former L.A. Times Book Prize winner.

The National Book Awards are scheduled to be presented at a gala celebration in New York on Nov. 14. The complete finalist list is below.

2012 National Book Award Finalists
Fiction

“This Is How You Lose Her” by Junot Díaz | Review

“A Hologram for the King” by Dave Eggers | Review

“The Round House” by Louise Erdrich

“Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” by Ben Fountain | Review

“The Yellow Birds” by Kevin Powers

Nonfiction

“Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945-1956” by Anne Applebaum

“Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity” by Katherine Boo

“The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 4” by Robert A. Caro

“The Boy Kings of Texas” by Domingo Martinez

“House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East” by Anthony Shadid | Review

Poetry

“Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations” by David Ferry

“Heavenly Bodies” by Cynthia Huntington

“Fast Animal” by Tim Seibles

“Night of the Republic” by Alan Shapiro

“Meme” by Susan Wheeler

Young people’s literature

“Goblin Secrets” by William Alexander

“Out of Reach” by Carrie Arcos

“Never Fall Down” by Patricia McCormick | Review

“Endangered” by Eliot Schrefer

“Bomb: The Race to Build-and Steal-the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon” by Steve Sheinkin

[For the record, 4:50 p.m. Oct. 10: An earlier version of this post said Anthony Shadid was killed while covering events in the Middle East. He was there reporting when he suffered a severe asthma attack and died.

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