( RollingStone.com ) -- Patti Smith won the 2010 National Book Award in the nonfiction category for her memoir `` Just Kids . '' `` I dreamed of having a book of my own , of writing one that I could put on a shelf , '' the singer said when accepting the award in New York Wednesday night . `` Please , no matter how we advance technologically , please do n't abandon the book . There is nothing in our material world more beautiful than the book . '' The Rolling Stone interview : Patti Smith , 1996 . `` Just Kids '' recounts Smith 's relationship with the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the late Sixties and early Seventies , and includes retellings of her encounters with Jimi Hendrix , Janis Joplin , William Burroughs , the Andy Warhol crowd and other luminaries of the era . Smith and Mapplethorpe met in 1967 , when both were 20 , and lived together for five years , first as lovers and later platonically . During these years , the two spurred each other to new adventures in their respective fields : He as a photographer , she as a poet and later as a songwriter and musician . Photos : Random notes . `` Just Kids , '' Smith 's first memoir ( she has issued several books of poetry , ) received rapturous reviews upon its release in January . National Book Award winners get a check for $ 10,000 and a bronze statue , but more importantly , prestige ( and a sales boost ) . Past winners include William Faulkner , Saul Bellow , Wallace Stevens , Ralph Ellison , W.H . Auden , Joan Didion , Gore Vidal and Philip Roth . The other finalists in the Non-Fiction category this year : Barbara Demick , with `` Nothing to Envy : Ordinary Lives in North Korea '' ; John W. Dower , `` Cultures of War : Pearl Harbor , Hiroshima , 9-11 , Iraq '' ; Justin Spring , `` Secret Historian : The Life and Times of Samuel Steward '' ; and Megan K. Stack , `` Every Man in This Village Is a Liar : An Education in War . '' Patti Smith wins National Book Award for memoir [ New York Times ] . Copyright © 2011 Rolling Stone .
` `` Nothing to Envy : Ordinary Lives recounts Smith 's relationship with Smith . The book is Smith 's first memoir , but she has issued several books of poetry . Joan Didion winners get a check for $ 10,000 and a bronze statue .