This year’s National Book Awards ceremony was expected to mark a return to predictable form. It didn’t.

William T. Vollmann, a journalist and novelist with a cult following and colorful life, last night walked away with the coveted award for fiction for his novel “Europe Central” (Viking).

After beating out the favorite, E.L. Doctorow, Mr. Vollmann said: “I thought I’d lose so I didn’t prepare a speech.” The other finalists were Mary Gaitskill, Christopher Sorrentino, and Rene Steinke.

Mr. Vollmann, who is has written several large tomes of historical fiction over the last decade, said “Europe Central” was inspired by the question of how people could be capable of such atrocities as those committed by the Nazis against the Jews. “That’s what this book is about,” he said. “I’m very happy that it’s over, and I don’t have to think about it anymore.”

In nonfiction, the expected winner, Joan Didion, won more votes than Alan Burdick, Leo Damrosch Jim Dwyer, Kevin Flynn, and Adam Hochschild. Ms. Didion’s memoir of grief and mourning, “The Year of Magical Thinking” (Alfred A. Knopf), has been discussed widely this year.

In the Poetry category, W.S. Merwin won for his collection “Migration: New and Selected Poems.” Mr. Merwin, whose stepson was there to accept the award for him, beat out John Ashbery, Frank Bidart, Brendan Galvin, and Vern Rutsala.

Each of the night’s winners received $10,000.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a founding father of the Beat movement who has owned and operated San Francisco’s City Lights bookshop and publishing imprint for half a century, was the first recipient of the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. Mr. Ferlinghetti, 86, accepted the award with a speech about the decline of literature in our country. “With the dumbing down of American literature,” he said, “the literarian is becoming an endangered species. It’s high time they recognize one.”

Asked in advance of the ceremony how he felt about winning the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, literary statesman Norman Mailer responded with characteristic quip: “Fine. What can I say?”

2005 WINNERS

Fiction
William T. Vollmann, ‘Europe Central’ (Viking)

Nonfiction
Joan Didion, ‘The Year of Magical Thinking’ (Alfred A. Knopf)

Poetry
W.S. Merwin, ‘Migration: New and Selected Poems’ (Copper Canyon Press)

Children’s
Geanne Birdsall, ‘The Penderwicks’ (Alfred A. Knopf)