E. Annie Proulx's novel about a down-on-his-luck newspaper reporter in Newfoundland, "The Shipping News" (Charles Scribner's Sons), won the National Book Award for fiction, publishing's version of an Oscar, at a gala dinner at the Plaza Hotel.

In nonfiction, Gore Vidal won the award for "United States: Essays 1952-1992" (Random House), his collection of essays published over the past four decades.And A.R. Ammons won the poetry award for "Garbage" (W.W. Norton & Co.), inspired by the refuse along Interstate 95 in Florida.

The awards, which carry $10,000 prizes, are given each year for books written by U.S. citizens and published in the United States within the previous 12 months.

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Clifton Fadiman, a member of the Encyclopaedia Britannica board of editors, and a member of the editorial board of the Book-of-the-Month Club since 1944, received the 1993 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Fadiman will also receive $10,000.

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