I’ve been following this week’s kerfuffle over the young adult National Book Award nominee list in a state of baffled amazement. If you haven’t heard about it, Linda Holmes has a good overview over at NPR’s Monkey See blog. But, long story short, Lauren Myracle’s book, “Shine,” was included among the National Book Awards’ nominees, but the judges apparently meant to nominate Franny Billingsley’s book, “Chime.” After some back-and-forth, Myracle has withdrawn her book from the running — it was either that, or have the nomination stripped from her.

I can’t even imagine. Not just as a writer, but as a person who makes things and puts them out into the world for public consumption, the idea of being nominated for such a prestigious award only to find out it was a clerical error sounds like a nightmare. An actual nightmare, the kind that ranks right up there with showing up to your first day of middle school naked.

Vanity Fair has posted a frank interview with Myracle in which she talks about what happened, and I really admire the way she discusses it. She doesn’t gloss over or downplay what happened or its impact on her. (This sentence sums it up pretty nicely: “I felt gutted. I felt embarrassed, and ashamed that I had the gall to believe that this book was worthy.”) But she also doesn’t vilify the National Book Awards for its error. It was a mistake. A mistake that’s a little mind-blowing and was probably preventable, but still a mistake.

And her response is also more thoughtful — and more human — than the National Book Awards’ statement on the matter: “The National Book Foundation regrets that an error was made in the original announcement of the Finalists for the 2011 National Book Award in Young People’s Literature and apologizes for any confusion and hurt it may have caused Lauren Myracle. At her suggestion, we will be pleased to make a $5,000 donation to the Matthew Shepard Foundation in her name.”

Myracle’s made it pretty clear that she was mortified. I’d imagine that whoever made the original error was also mortified. It could go a long way to just say so.

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