Transcripts For CSPAN2 2020 National Book Awards 20240711

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It is an honor to welcome everyone to the 71st National Book awards. I am Jason Reynolds coming to you live from washington dc go this is overnight but there is so much going on in the world this is our night and it is a big deal. It is so much of a big deal i woke up this morning anxious and nervous as usual. I always, mother and i am anxious. It is 7 00 oclock in the morning and she says oh no i said i am feeling anxious about tonight have to hope the National Book awards am calling you to see if you have advice for your child go she said that she always has been to make the call. Let me ask you something, son. What did i make you say every single night before you got into bed when you were little boy . I said i dont want to do this right now she said no dont know what did i. C. E. Make you say every night when you got into bed . I said you made me say i can do anything. Exactly you can do anything. You tell me this all the time on. But i never asked you where you got that from the order that mantra come from and why did you make me say is so much . What did you learn that . And she started to laugh and she said actually i learned that from the first book that change my life. She was 13 years old and moved to washington dc from a small town in south carolina. She got here she was teased because she was southern and assume to have been less educated because she had an accident. She hung out in the Black Library because she thought being around the books would make her feel more intelligent. One day around the age of 13 she was looking through there is a new book that jumped out at her. It was called the power of positive thinking. I said you had Norman Vincent people at 13 years old . She said no i started the book but i read it every single week i would read and read and i finished the book by the time i was a senior in high school. But there was one mantra in the book that stuck in it was to tell yourself that you can do anything. Twentyfive years later i was born and fed me that same information. And 60 years later here i am the physical manifestation of that language and that narrative. The physical manifestation 126 letters are arranged in a sequence that can tear down walls or about build up even if it exist only within us. That is why tonight is our night. That is why this is a big deal go tonights event is also open and free which makes it a bigger deal. Free to everyone but also the biggest fundraiser for the National Book foundation. They are a Nonprofit Organization and need your support if you believe in the power up next to change the world please consider donating today. We have an audience room tonight full of people who love books and champions of the National Book foundation. Im glad you could join us and we will check in with them for the course of the night but for now he will start off with a Lifetime Achievement honorees. The first of these is given to a person who has expanded audience books and reading last year the foundation honored the head of the american booksellers association. Past winners include doctor interlude, dick robinson, and two nights honoree Carolyn Reidy was the ceo of Simon Schuster until her passing this past may. People hear from Simon Schuster authors and from the American Literary community. And her husband stephen will accept the award on her behalf. The first thing i thought of we lost carolyn was that she was a leader and ran a huge company and new everyone in the publishing world and intricately new how it works but she was a reader. Will have Something Special we remember about carolyn. For some, it was her intuitive feel for the Publishing Industry go brothers it was her passion for books go brothers it was her passion for books not just from other folks in the Publishing Business like booksellers or anybody who picked up a book. And always appreciated i knew my work add value. It was comforting for sure. I just cannot imagine anyone more deserving the and carolyn to receive this recognition. The contributions she has made to business more broadly of the literary landscape are unparalleled. I assume the Business People and publishing would be focused on business and not on books. When it comes to carolyn i could not have been more wrong. She was very involved with all three of the novels i had published that Simon Schuster. Carolyn was involved over the last two decades go through and through a book person when you go to her office there were manuscripts everywhere. She looked at publishing as a sacred trust between the publisher and the author and you can write whatever you wanted. She might disagree or agree or have questions. But it was your book and that is the perfect environment for an author. People are ready for the story of the diversity that she created a culture of openness and a culture with a wide vision. All i knew about Carolyn Reidy is that she knew me. I only met her one time if like the greatest longdistance relationship of time. I think carolyns legacy is understanding how to move the Publishing Industry into each new age that comes along including the digital revolution. She was ceo during the hard times in a hard time for the books and the economy and is died of going over that she said okay we have to change in certain areas. The bookselling will had some ups and downs during that period but she never stopped to try and figure out what it was and what we could do to be better. Among the things that was carolyn special but she knew it was larger than herself not just can we make a profit this quarter it was can we make the world a better place. She did it books into the emotional connection and everything from the National Book award through all the organizations they participated in you knew she was motivated the basic concept we are here for a short while we have to make sure we make it about something larger than just ourselves. Good evening everybody. I am stephen, Carolyn Reidy or spouse of five years thank you to the National Book foundation and all of carolyns friends there for so many years for this. I am tremendously honored to accept this award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary community on behalf of carolyn. With whom i have been sharing books and reading since we were 19 years old. We had our first conversation. It was about a book. Over time, i came to learn that carolyn did not have just a passion for books and intellectual curiosity and reading itself. In her words, in the magic that comes from the interaction between the authors words and readers mind , the intellectual curiosity drew carolyn to an understanding of publishing as the promoter of that author and reader magic. The result of promoting that magic was an expansion of the audience for books and reading. And that audience expansion was critical to carolyn because she believed that authors and publishers, through the power of the words in the books do not just reflect our culture , they hope to create it. Yes you heard that she was a reader and a person. But i think she was proudest love being a publisher. Because as she said, in publishing, we are the shepherds to this gift of the book. Doing everything we can to help bring the authors voice to the reader. And her success in doing that well and thereby increasing literature i think she would have been delighted to receive the honor of this award from the National Book foundation. Now while carolyn believed in that high cultural impasse she was equally convinced expanding the audience was part of a sacred trust of publishing. Why . Because of the passionate belief that books and reading can change ones life. Many people say books of change their lives and reading has changed their outlook and they describe how they had winning evidence of that change. But for carolyn, ever since we with a 19 yearold kids discussing our book, books and reading not only changed our life but more importantly , gave us a life together. I believe that is built on books and reading is the real recipient of this award today. Because that shared life is testament to her conviction that reading is one of the greatest things that humans can do. And so to honor the contribution of carolyns life to promote that conviction, i am deeply grateful to the National Book foundation. Thank you very much. Stephen, our thoughts are with you and carolyns legacy will live on for our work. The second Lifetime Achievement award presented tonight is for the metal for distinguished contribution. Previous winners include the great toni morrison, stephen king, and gwendolyn brooks. This honor is given to a writer who is over the course of their career, greatly enriched our literary heritage through their body of work. Tonight summary and his books have had an extraordinary impact and here to present the metal is the author of four works of fiction including the National Book Award Finalist and everything inside a National Book critics circle list. Her memoir is my favorite National Book Award Finalist and the National Book critics circle award autobiography. 2009 macarthur fellow, winner of the 2018 International Prize for literature, two time winner of the story prize and the winner of the 2020 prize in literature with great great pleasure of like to welcome one of my heroe heroes. Good evening. The first time someone received the National Book foundation word for testing was contribution was 26 years ago in 1994 and in each recipient Walter Mosley presented the same award to the poet and olympics. Gwendolyn brooks. He felt the weight of this award. Akin to what i feel tonight. The job of the writer, walter once said, is take a close and uncomfortable look at the world they inhabit, the world we all inhabited on the job of the novel is to make the court think walter has been looking closely and intimately and our world for the past 30 years. Starting with the publication of the Ground Breaking novel to the most recent short story collection pushing 60 books from the novel to the existential killer and then a beautiful meditation on aging and dying. Ever curious walter is always in search of new ground to look at the ins and outs of his beloved los angeles for his boot on views on capitalism and race. The expiration of genres and thoughts the awardwinning minor notes in Science Fiction are often referred to as departures for him all that work is a departure as well as a homecoming. Homecoming filled with sinners to take us to the edge and back when if we are lucky a stop at the crossroads to embrace all of the complexities and frailtie frailties, those like the neighborhood philosopher that are Strong Enough to kill with their bare hands and gentle enough to breathe a little girls hair. Constantly questioning the status quo all while commending the world and themselves and sometimes they carry the weight of all tales with influences ranging from Langston Hughes to gwendolyn parks helix deeply into not only the world we inhabit but the imminent world of all that we are and all that we are becoming. Walters contribution to american letters extend beyond his own pages in 1998 to create the Publishing Program at the city college of new york with the goal of training more people of color to work in publishing. The program has graduated over 250 students who have gone to work in publishing editors designers or publicists. To make something from nothing one of those that they have written. Something from nothing is a receipt for failure and also the hope. Tonight, in spite of the years of challenges and horrors we dare to celebrate the miraculous is my honor to introduce the honor this years Book Foundation award for distinguished contribution of american letters, Walter Mosley. Thank you so much for that Edwidge Danticat. Thank you so much for that Edwidge Danticat on its really wonderful and i and deeply grateful to have the contributions of american letters david had the Nathan Mccall Ralph Ellison sterling on quincy truth Neil Degrasse tyso tyson. These are just a few names among my peers who are alive now or were during the season. Without them and so many others i could not be here today. Its a great honor to be given this recognition. And is almost nothing a past the mind is too small to contain the full scope that the language itself with full experience and with his own shaking metaphors and the ability to offer over the millennia deep human invention of the wars and ever and coaching. And then they have yet to be surpassed by that of any other reading. Sentence by sentence we my fellow writers and i talk about solitude and drinking in reality and those that might not ever be uttered except the words in the books that we read and write and interpret the same time they apply them to their own unique experience and this way writing his political and democratic in the extreme we are free in our minds to imagine to conjure anything, anything at all. Briefly back in the beginning there is a great way hanging over when the underlying subject is the first black man to receive. We the people who are dark have been here on this continent 400 years as a matter of course we had been chained peyton robbed of our names in our history and often our dignity. This has been an ongoing process and unending anguish. One may be proud that this word represents one may ask can such a thing make a difference . Is this a dying gas sport a first path is it any different than any other day the past 100 years . I prefer to believe we on the threshold of a new day and that this evening is one of those taken to recognize the potentia potential. We the people built this nation and brick by brick and yet to be realized these achievements cannot be ignored we have been here from the beginning and will be here at the end with her head held high with the promise of equality is achieved. Thank you for giving me the recognition of what has gone before him the chance to add a few the truths that we all strive for. Thank you. Congratulations mr. Mosley. You remember this but when i was 21 years old standing on the corner in Brooklyn New York and placard was coming down the street and the windows down just enough for us to see the top half of your face and we can see her hat and her eyes and a bit of your nose and my buddy said thats Walter Mosley. You understand who left and the world that window up. [laughter] asked for 15 years i was at a fundraiser for a literary event marvin james was there it was amazing im sitting at a table with my friend and i feel the weight on my shoulder and i looked up to see who was pressing down upon me, it will resume you have on your hat you tipped the hat and simply said icu. I dont know if you remember it but it meant the world to me because of felt like you were saying that i had a place here and i earned a seat at the table among the others and to stitch my square to add it to the patchwork of the people darker than blue and those black voice voices. Black people you said only those in the United States ever explicitly forbidden to become literate. I am now officially speechless. Tonight we are gathered here with our community to celebrate the best we as artist have to offer and in service to that end we must have a national. Board to reflect the full depth and breadth of the Human Experience in all diversity and complexity. I grew up in rural alabama very few books in our home. I remember 1956 i was 16 years old we went down and were told the library was not for coloreds. And pursue to honor the voices and the contributions to our culture that have gone unrecognized. I had a teacher in Elementary School said read my child to read. I love books. No reason the National Literary identity without those voices that has been excluded from this stage and now the franchise and the underserved to be aligned from whatever might have been achieved, compromise. I understood i wanted to write about the experiences of the black and the people of the south for that culture to see our lives were just as important and lovely as theres this is a work at that im only at the beginning. The National Book foundation we believe black lives matter. Is such a futuristic idea a world in which the descendents of slaves become poets. We acknowledge one of the great gifts of this moment is the recognition the struggles of black americans now in generations past all make us more free. With my poor and black and southern children and men. We saw your love you regrets and jewelry and hope. In our heart and in our culture we also acknowledge inequities that can do real material harm and the power of this organization shapes the nation literary trends we must bear this in mind always. Every single time i meet a peter looks at me and says i have never seen my story until i read yours, i we meant them when this matters it is looking someone in the face to say icu and in return to say i am seen. To remain at home for black voices and to use the example to mold the National Book foundation into an institution that celebrates and represents the full scope of what we as a people have accomplished. I will never lose my faith even i can create and antiracist america where Racial Disparities are nonexistent and americans are no longer manipulated by racist ideas and black lives matter. We have a lot of work ahead of us. And i am so proud to be part of a community that things like that. We know the world will not be complete without all of our stories and it. Tonight when we say black lives matter, let us see it as acknowledgment of all those to surveying writers and readers who previously were excluded from this room. They kind, hyperpower. Say with an awareness. Where value and ability to show a way forward in gratitude for that which will come and as a result the Literary Community with the stories to tell and a community of which we can all be proud and unequivocally to understand why black lives matter and no American Literature without the franchise to be documented or marginalize marginalized. Now i would like to introduce my friend, the National Book Foundation Executive director lisa lucas. I met lisa a decade ago and a bookstore introduced by a mutual friend the late great book stephenson after shortly meeting one another she gave me a large list of books i was to read immediately after listening to anything she had to say ever since. Thank you Jason Program so thankful to you for hosting tonight. Here we are im coming to life from the Los Angeles Public library in the gorgeous childrens room. Im so happy to be here around these books and what you. Thank you for tuning in, our audience its hard with the pandemic we were scared we cannot do the show but you are here watching and that matters. We are grateful to be able to celebrate all finals today and we welcome you to the 71st National Book awards. Very soon we will find out who will win so lets take a look at the green room and say hello to the finalist waiting for the announcement. Translated literature award was recorded a few hours ago we are so grateful to celebrate our finalist tonight and even though we cannot be together we are so glad to be with our community its a holiday for joining us and dressing up your work is incredible and to be a part of our history and family. One book we know can change a life and these books will impact the world for years to come. Every single one of them. 2020 has been a challenging year for all of us in the book community. This spring as the reality of the pandemic set and we asked how we should respond condition is dedicated to celebrating books but also to engaging readers so instead of going back me double down and placed even more books in Public Housing with new farms and new ways to foster conversations between authors around the country and with the support of the Mellon Foundation with a great privilege to collaborate with their colleagues at the academy of american poets to watch the historic will refund granted 5 million and relief pending to 282 organization supporting the learning Arts Community at every single level could not have been more critical and i cannot be order of the first test how we met the moment. This is our fundraiser and we are put together a little video of why we hope you will support this book. Resistance and a change often began in art and very often the art of words. The first National Book award 70 years to shine a light on exceptional books and authors showing us that we value that we are interested in what is important. Books are the most powerful force in the universe and history supports a. You already one because you made into a book. In march we decided we were distribute books around the country we had programs and then to present events we had plane tickets and audiences lined up so very quickly we regrouped to make sure we were dealing topically with the extraordinary issues but the world no space things we worked even more deeply with Publishing Partners and Public Libraries to make sure those books got into the hands of the people that needed them. In the heart of that Education Program at the idea of access with a connection for young people and books collaboration between the National Book foundation and the Us Department of our development along with other nonprofit partners and agencies to change the fact Public Housing authorities work with Publishing Partners with a high quantity of books that are donated to Public Housing authorities. Now we are in the pandemic mode you would be surprised how create the Public Housing authorities are those that distribute nutritional meals and snacks and practicing social distancing of course and we have families coming in. Children are receiving a your books along with a nutritional meal. And we are more excited to be getting books during this time cut off from other resources. So this year alongside the academy we gave out a three three. 5 million during the pandemic. 242 282 organizations for the foundation. How the writers get reading will move around with audiences or talk to young people . We believe there is no culture without the word and certainly no Justice Without the word to give form. It came at a moment when i dont think when the organization needed it allowed us to innovate when people had to cut back and allows us to offer free programming and tell stories right now were hungry to hear from each other. Public programs we are thinking about it though audiences and how we get adults excited about discovering new books and using the ideas presented to be more critical for things are going on in the moment. We have identified books about policing america to help people understand what the cultural system looks like and who is impacted by it. Its important because its important we understand each other. One but that has made a difference in the community, the book will never but what is the object of the book and also think about the quality of opportunity to have access to the book. The National Book award is many things to many people the greatest celebration we have. Its also a fundraiser with a powerful furniture for justice and to have a staff dedicated to be in transition as a nonprofit while we believe in our future is far less assured we hope you will consider making a donation for whatever you can. Weather 5. 50000. Im just a girls standing here in a ball down in the library asking you to love books with money. People are resilient. We have all lost so much and so many luminaries. It has been a tough year. But we have also seen that real limitation that we have not been pulled enough in our vision. We have not been brave enough in our choices. We havent been confident enough in our values to make sure this industry, this community is strong and inclusive and as vibrant as it could be. As it will be. The way this year has tested us has been we are able to take that imagination and fortitude to use it to address the problems have always been with us. We can do better we know we can do better and we must do better. As many of you know, this is my final year as director of the sign institution. I will be joining as the random house publisher in january. Leaving is bittersweet. I will not cry but it is a comfort to see what we have built together and to know this organization in this group of people have the skills and stamina and flexibility to take on whatever comes next. My first National Book awards and 2015 just days after the election just like tonight. No one knew exactly what was going to happen to us as a country we shared a meal and celebrated books and it made us feel better and then john lewis spoke who just won the National Book award for young peoples literature and we told the crowd cheers that as a child he was kept from having a library card because he was black that night john lewis told us how much it meant to be recognized through the people of color walked away that evening we all walked we would hope and more safe that the work that we do it mattered and malleable and could change and widen and we could keep doing the work and it would make a difference i came into this job a little shocked i had gotten the job but it has been the best gift of my life to be supported by and guided by and cared about by a board of directors who believe in books the same way i do. Then just give me the freedom to do my work that they gave me the tools. How often to get to call them the best of the best and have them answer your calls with enthusiasm . The aunties and uncles of great change in this industry and in my life and my gratitude for them is immeasurable thank you to the board of directors of the National Book foundation your support has helped us reach new heights. And it has changed my life. I also want to thank the staff at the National Book foundation, who are my rocks and my friends and the team i am so proud to work with every single day. We got this done in the face of tremendous obstacles with grace and humor and hard work and never ever once a lagging believe the authors of the books or this or this tradition and i am so grateful he believed enough in me to let me guide the ship program also grateful to those who donated all the beautiful graphics and the Motion Graphics they have been with us since my first day and have been doing wonderful work at such a gift also thank you to the filmmakers who made our beautiful films this year they work so hard and thank you to our cap dinner and of course the team making tonights insane and possible multifaceted 400,000 person live stream person possible you are really useful. 2020 has taught us that every obstacle is an opportunity to reinvent how we go about our core mission celebrating the best literature in america expanding audience to ensure the books are prominent place in American Culture the National Book foundation is strong and creative and will keep changing the world one book and one leader at a time i look forward to supporting and sharing on those efforts forever. I am so glad and so proud and lucky to have been the steward of the ship and im really really grateful for my partner in crime, who worked so closely with david steinberger. Im sorry we are not on stage together. They give me some sorry we are not on stage together but you way and here in new york and jason in dc were doing the best we can im in a special place. Everyone watching tonight on behalf of the board of directors of the National Book additional like to welcome you to the 71st National Book awards. Im coming to tonight life from the Trustees Room for the new york Public Library i cannot think of a more fitting place to be that behind me inscribed in marble is the year 1910 and the words that i shall read to you the city of new york has erected this building for the free use of all the people in that the much says it all thank you to my fellow Board Members and the new york Public Library for making this. Available tonight. Its great to be here. Tonight, as we have done for 71 years we recognize incredible writers, and of course celebrate readers whose lives have been changed by books in the National Book awards are not just an award show, the single greatest annual source of income for the National Book foundation and the around Education Programs like those described in the video we have watched together so far tonight weve raised almost 500,000 which is great. Our goal is 750,000. We still have a ways to go. We dont have usual ticket sales is not a typical years of contributions from individuals matter more than ever where asking you tonight to please consider making a contribution that you can do right now that National Book. Org for anyone who makes a donation of 100 or more one of this years finalist books will be mailed to you thank you to the fellow board member the leader of baker and taylor for making this possible and also thank you to our Publishing Partners for their generosity to provide a book to you will send to as many of you as possible while supplies last and we can assure you it will be a great read. If you have it and handy it is National Book. Org. I need to Say Something to use and this is important because none of this would be possible without the support of our sponsors for coping with random house amazon, barnes noble, facebook, Simon Schuster, also thank you to harpercollins, the Lincoln Family Foundation mcmillan, mcmillan, wiley and ww norton. Thank you all. We need to acknowledge our judges who had over 1600 books and this time digitally because is not a typical year. This is a major commitment to be a judge. Thank you all to my colleagues on the board of directors for your support and a special thank you to the National Book Foundation Staff those who of work so hard and have accomplished so much thank you to our host and Jason Reynolds for his passion and to help us celebrate tonight now as you already know this is lisa lucas nash one last as executive director after her five years we are so proud of her will look forward to Great Success as the publisher of pantheon and with many years of working with her in her new role. Lisa does not know this yet we have a gift for her commissioned especially for this occasion im pleased to share with everyone an original painting but a fantastic artist and clever chain has created a work that encompasses each and every book that won the National Book award during lisas five years in the painting will not be completed until after tonight will later of this evening we learned of the winner. Now let me say a few more words about lisa. You are. Lisa, thank you i will miss our world and weekly calls, your energy, your drive and believe we can make happen and the difference books could make in your world. Thinking back this week about everything you have accomplished and it was so much i just kept coming back to that day and you will remember this day when you first told me we might be able to give books to kids at Public Housing authorities call the book desert and the research is clear if you do nothing more than just get books into the home of a child , the chances in life to better. Now here we are just a few years later and thousands and thousands and thousands of books have somehow made their way into the homes of thousands and thousands of kids that is a making a difference in the world, i dont know what is. Lisa, from all of us, thank you for everything you have done for books and writers and readers everywhere. Thank you david it has meant everything to work with you and do this work and also thank you to the sponsor to waterproof mascara. Thank you for everything. Congratulations to lisa. Thank you for all of your work over the last five years. Love you so much and also to all of you watching again please feel free to donate literacy only when met with accessibility with the National Book foundation. Its time to get going with the National Book award but first, lets check in with our audience and how it is going so far. One thing from lisas speech and that video i love about the National Book foundation , they will need to get around the entire country to see what the audience is watching from tonight. Brookland, long island, island, chicago, so many people around the country just a beautiful tapestry of readers. The National Book awards are particularly exciting because until the moment it leaves the judges mouth no one but the 5 percent panel judges knows the decision not the foundation board, not the staff, not m me, they have made the final decision earlier today so everyone here is a hear the same time for the first time. The winners in each category will be announced by the chair of the respective category presented in reverse of the corridor to the categories are young people literature, literature, translator literature, poetry, nonfiction,. The first is near and dear to my heart the National Book award for young peoples literature. And we just need books that reflect their own experiences while expanding their horizons vicious finalist for the National Book award for young peoples literature including about a black teenagers formative years a graphic novel documenting a refugee journey and imagining japaneseamerican and teenagers and the incarceration during world war ii from Eastern Europe to the bayou of louisiana they offer young people the entire world. The title chair for young peoples literature is writer in general manager at the bookshop. Good evening im joan and im honored to be here on behalf of the book Literature Committee thank you for joining us tonight during the months of covid ive had the privilege to have a large stack of books to read seeing how they can take us out of the world that make us more able to live and it take you to the National Book foundation and those for the flawless leadership for this process also the privilege of meeting with passionate leaders weekly to understand literature for kids. Thank you for your insight and kindness and commitment not so much to criticize behind merit with each book that we read that led to many hours of lively conversation looking back on the year 2020 i am grateful i will have these memories to keep. The five National Book Award Finalist working in the dragonflies. Published by scholastic press. We are not free. Pushed by mifflin hardcore. Everybody is looking published by done books. Everybody is looking published by diabetics and the way back published by alfred a cannot and issues National Record real people literature goes to the king and the dragonflies. Scholastic pressed and implanted scholastic inc. King and the dragonflies hopes the reader from the first haunting sentence the voice rings true of the toxic masculinity and selfdiscovery slowly come into focus as king himself begins to understand the effort and hope in the world jason has created a timeless story that is painfully timely that will grow. And you hear me . Thank you so much for this honor i am trying not to cry but i appreciated. Thank you National Book foundation for this incredible honor. This is an interesting book for National Young people literature this is been the most devastating year many peoples memories and in our lifetime also an empowering year for many and to reflect with a society that we live in with the internal and external. I know im not the only one who believes the next generation the empty priority change the world in so many ways and its an honor and a privilege to be given the platform in the opportunity to help guidance but the magic of story to be impacted but the power of young people. As an author for Young Readers i talk about the Necessary Balance between pain and hope and joy. It is been a difficult years ive been grateful for those moment the majority think each of agent, im trying not to cry, you are a rock and im so grateful for you. Every day of this journey thank you to scholastic, my amazing editor well with the incredible marketing and publicity team. For guidance and support and to my family all of you, thank you i love you so much and thank you for your support and thank you to my mom. Who has been there for me with this little dream of mine since i wrote my first picture book about that cow and every hope i still have. Thank you. Congratulations to the winner and now back to our host Jason Reynolds. Congratulations i cannot be happy for you. Next is the National Book a word for translated literature the first award added in over two decades in the translated word in a global perspective honoring books from all over the world published here in the United States. Now then National Book award for translated literature. The news this days remind us we are living in a fraction with the finalist for translated literature makes clear that this is a shared planet we recognize exceptional books translated into english the 2020 finalist are transitive from arabic, german, japanese, spanih and swedish. These astronomy books consider the fragility of love, the violence of abuse, and the effects of the past on the present. Each makes a decisive case for global literature. The value of perspectives reaching beyond National Borders the panel chair for the National Book award for literature is now a 2012 macarthur fellow and dream novels including all our names. This year in this long and difficult year i could not have been more fortunate than to have served on the jury with remarkable readers and writers and scholars and activist and artist. To my fellow judges, thank you for your brilliance and generosity and warmth and the vigorous and impassioned debates for your humor and of course your friendship. Over the course of seven months my fellow judges and i have the distinct pleasure of self push one selflessly escaping the hardearned miracles and stories that were meticulously translated into english for more than a dozen languages in a moment of profound uncertainty and isolation in each nove novel, story and essay that we encountered brought us back to the easily overlooked fact the world is remarkable and each act of translation bears witness to that part of the five books that made the short list this year are intimate and expansive and personal and political marbles of form and language problem to us in a dedicated work of extraordinary translators word by word line by line put it back together. The five finalists for the National Book award in translation are high as the water rises. The family cause published by fsg. Tokyo station. Published by overhead books minor detail. Published by new directions. This years National Book award for translated literature goes to tokyo station. Published by overhead books. T tent transitive japanese this has been an imprint of Penguin Random house. This translation from a japanese writer is a necessary addition which is the memories of those occupying the train station. As a multiple threshold responding to his surroundings of his compatriots. I am very surprised. Congratulations. [laughter] great job. Thank you. Thank you very much. I am so happy to have my book translated into english we are sad we cannot be together right now theres just a exploded. The main character of tokyo veno station is a man is a very distinct work. I want to seeing her places. There was much alike to say and for many people. Thank you. Finally i would like to share the story with the people who are part to create the last four years. Thank you. Thank you so much. This is is unbelievable. I could not have imagined years ago when i started translating this novel that it would win the National Book award for translated literature. There are so many people i would like to thank. First i would like to think laura and glory at riverhead for making this happen. But before that thank you to Deborah Smith and everyone for believing in the book in the first place. Thank you to my parents for always believing in me and encouraging me and my husband for supporting me to the point of moving to japan with me. Most importantly i have to thank you for trusting me as a first is it with a very precious novel. Speaking speaking japanese thank you so much for letting me translate your beautiful novel. Thank you also to the people for being so gracious and helping me this is truly unbelievable. Thank you. Congratulations to the winners and now back to our host Jason Reynolds congratulations to you and morgan and i agree a high five and how it would be phenomenal right now. And now what i like to call the piano of literature the cornerstone of the thing, the National Book award for poetry. Poetry not only teaches us about the world but how to live in the world. This years finalist for the National Book award for poetry investigates immigration and colonialism, examines the effects of systemic violence and cultural identities and to ask us to recognize beauty to level in the imagination and to build a future worth celebrating. The National Book award for poetry whose collection is a finalist of the 2017 National Book award for poetry. Good evening everyone. It is an honor to be with you tonight and it has been an indescribable honor to serve alongside hello Panel Members diana, john and i wish to sincerely thank the panel thank you for your dedication to your work this year and are those unbelievable stresses and difficulties. Thank you for the respectful discourse we shared. It was a trust established amongst us that a cloud openness and honesty and the ability to encounter our differing views not as opposition but as important consideration. And this is a testimony to the power across location when conducted with care and integrity and respect for our community. For me a lifelong love. With the books that we read with some poetry that refuses forgetting. These books were courageous in their offering and ways in which to hold that side of division. To somehow correct Human Experience. Experience. The parameters remain indefinable in many of these without question, we understand. It is. And it is what makes us human. Celebratory work. This years National Book award finally starts. For the man in blue published by fourway books. Excuse me, i think i read it in the wrong order. Ill start again. A new direction of books. Tommy, the man in blue. Anthony cody from borderline. Natalie diaz for postcolonial published by grand will. National book award is donnelly troy. Urgent quality captures the report of those transformed by colonization. Present and past share during the korean war, had no place to land. Devastating and vigilant, survivor drawing photograph and handwritten honoring between the facts and critical imagination. We are all victims of history. Thank you so much. I want to thank National Book foundation, i am rachel and honored to be here. It is amazing, thank you. This award will is for my fath father. Poetry and complacent changed my life. Inseparable. The tourism of inflation. Generously published my translation of korean poets translating the writings. The money. Directions, ugly duckling, we. Thank you. The act of poetry is an act wanted to be engaged in. On the side of the struggles poetry is resistance. She said i needed to excavate with language. In 1934 and acceptance speech, our military has practiced a popular world of abroad and can do so here. We may have already arrived therefore, its more important that we engage in non predatory of writing and reading poetry and translation can be on the side of the struggles of those here. Thank you. Congratulations to the winner. Now back to our house, Jason Reynolds. Congratulations. Theres only two awards left me knocking at the door we believe in the work and if you want to support please consider donating to this years National Book awards next step is the category the most admiration, the National Book award of nonfiction. 2020 finalists for the National Subject informed. Across biography, history, essays and memoirs. His book considered immigration and denial of citizenship. Historical and literary icons. Native americans and what it means to be black in america. The expand our world. The panel chair for this years National Book awards the author of 16 books putting the environmental literature classic refuge, unnatural history of family and face, she divides her time between the red rock desert in utah and cambridge massachusetts were shes a writer and resident at harvard divinity school. Good evening thank you for supporting the National Book foundation. Bless you for bringing us together and thank you for hosting this. At the time when we hardly know who to trust or where it dwells, red this year, the power of ones world. These words. Writers thoughtfully, directly, infidelity of ideas. You have stories that moved us, disturbed us. It reoriented our thinking. Start our heart, impeccable language as we explore this style in nonfiction. Story well told as a community, we become accountable for the knowledge thats been shared. As a result, we not only see the world differently, we re inhabited. Because of what we have encountered in these extraordinary books, my fellow judges and i became a community who cared. Not only about revelations and wisdom contained in these narratives but a community who cares about each other. This is literature. How we read how we treat one another. I want to think, with all my heart, david and jim. In this pandemic that is now a place, please know you marked this moment for me with respect and friendship. Deep vows of gratitude. Tonight, we recognize your gifts making a true story a living landscape. The power of a session, identities not only shared but interrogated and are deepened. We felt ignorant and how to make slave and made us laugh until we didnt. Exposing heinous policies of racism in this country we call america. The two often hidden history, past and present brought into the light, undocumented america and it is true, the dead are arriving. You showed us we are indeed in unworthy republic. You left us with outrage and grief but also force field of hope and dignity of ancestors. The five finalists for the National Book award in nonfiction are carla, the undocumented america one world. Pain, the dead are rising. Unworthy republic, disposition native americans and the road to indian territory. Autobiography. Gerald walker how to make slave, is the. Ohio state university. And the winner of the National Book award in nonfiction is, are rising, the life of malcolm x. Less pain. The life of malcolm x. Ww norton and company. Depiction of malcolm x, one of the greatest and most interest interested. Malcolms story arise from devoted revolution, and unlikely place. The dead are arising. Autobiography. Hi. Good evening, make you so much for this. This has been a bitter sweet moment. I really wish my father were here for this. It is so hard to believe this. First of all, i just want to say after interviewing the two older brothers of malcolm x my father decided to write the dead are arising. A book that would bring the 20th century into focus. To show not just a family of the world in which was born to provide prospect, who more than any other leader of the 1960s to consider we are and plan for what we could become. Since beginning this journey, to see how malcolm x has influenced international, today all over the world, the message still rings true. Laura goldman, peter miller, early, haley back in. I also want to think daniel. Bob, the editor for believing in this book and in my father and his commitment to this. And was doing throughout this journey has kept this book on course without you and bob, this book would have been possible. I want to thank my fellow nominees, the judges and National Book foundation. Most importantly, i want to thank my father for committing to this enormous work and making his lifes work amy on as a copilot. My mother, my brothers, walter evans, walter and linda evans, uncle john, joseph and my aunt marion and their families for love and support over these 30 years. Thank you. Congratulations to the winners and now our host. Congratulations. You, to your father an entire family. Now last but of course not least, the National Book awards. In the year when we are all more isolated than ever before fiction reminds us that we are not alone. Its just finalists the National Book award for fiction for the working class, children in a crisis, action movie stars and families at home. In their enormous humanity, and familiar. These books are chance to question who we are and could be. This is National Book awards is roxanne, difficult women as well as promise among them. Hello, everyone. It is a pleasure to be here tonight though i certainly wish we were in the same room. Its been a year but in honor to serve on the Fiction Committee of the 2020 National Book award. To do so alongside a truly incredible panel of judges, i served with christina, hunt, Rebecca Keaton patterson and we also have in this relentless support of lisa lucas of the National Foundation so i think all of them. Fiction is, and always has been and always will be my first love both as a writer and a reader. I love it so much. One of the greatest process was reading books i might not ordinarily gravitate toward this year, the committee and by read a lot of books. A lot. The books were incredible. Novels, intricately crafted short stories, we read about love and marriage in war, who had stories that were serious stories that were moving stories are hilarious and really some combination of all of those things. If you publish fiction this ye year, please note your words were read and respected and enjoyed. Has been an impossible year in almost every way. We are dealing with a pandemic and Political Climate that somehow both terrifying and absurd. I am in all of the art writers are producing under such challenging circumstances. We spent a lot of time in this Community Talking about what we are up against but not nearly enough time talking about what we accomplished despite the challenges. It is hard to write when it feels like the world is falling apart and even harder to write well. It is hard to believe writing matters is democracy threatens to shatter when writing and all rights, these things matter. We have a response but as writers to respond to political moment. We have a response building to bear witness. We have responsibility to instruct and entertain. To that, the writers who made long and short list this year was instructed and entertained in memorable ways. I congratulate you all. This years finalists are leave the world behind published by echo, a childrens bible isaiah published by the ww norton company. The secret lives of Church Ladies published by West Virginia university press. Anterior chinatown by charles, published by pmp on Penguin Random house. This years winner is interior china town. Charles interior writers town chinatown. Must confront a profoundly racist hierarch of the world. The story of his own life. [laughter] what . Thank you. Nice to meet you. [laughter] i cant hear you and i also cant feel anything in my body right now. I prepared nothing. How realistic i thought this w was, thank you to the National Foundation and everyone there at the green room. Thank you to everyone, mcconnell and julie ertl, im going to forget but ill thank you all later. You are all incredible. Two of the judges and the other judges and to all the people who made tonight possible, in a year where, i have had goosebumps several times tonight when i saw john lewis talk about not having a library card even though ive seen that, it makes me tear up walter gave me goosebumps. Hearing about this made me cry again. Theres not much reason for hope right now but this year, hearing about all these books and reading some of them, going on to read many more, it is what keeps me going and i hope this community can sustain other people the same way. I hope this can also do that for people. I dont know what is happening, pretty sure this is a simulation. Ill probably just stop talking now. Jason richman, i love you and you know i love you. I just love you all. Thank you for this honor, it is credible. Im going to go melt into a puddle now. Congratulations to the winner and now back to our host. Congratulations, charles. An enormous congratulations to the winners of tonight National Book award. Thank you to julia, our an object tonight. You might know from so many different wonderful audiobooks, thank you so much to all of tonights finalists, winners, judges, attendees and viewers. The National Book awards would be possible without the wonderful support of leaders everywhere. Thinking about support, weve raised about 500,000, which is nothing to sneeze at we did not reach our goal. That is okay because the National Book foundation wants to reach by the end of the year so please spread the word, please share and help us get this nonprofit where it needs to be. We have one surprise left tonight so stay tuned. As far as i am concerned, my job here is done. Take care of each other, be kind, tell each other you love one another thank you for attending the National Book. And now for a special treat from one of the 2020 translated literature judges, john of the mountain goats with this year thank you for joining us and make. Readings. Ive been asked to turn this. It will be nice to just hang particularly on the floor. Listen briefly. It will only be a short while at the very least, we need to put this calendar here behind us. A saturday morning i am going to make it if it kills me i played video games i might punch another we hung out Holding Hands through this year if it kills me im going to make it through this year if it kills me i go home to california im excited to be home ready for the things to come as you might imagine im going to make it through this year if it kills me i am going to make it will go through this year if it kills me if it kills me if it kills me during a virtual event, eisenhower discussing the light and leadership of her grandfather, dwight eisenhower. Heres a portion. We were very conscious of what it would be to be diminished president. You have to remember the president wilson was almost scandal the people in the country didnt know how the president was. I was determined not to find himself in that situation for the good of the country after having three illnesses during his presidency and after each one, he gave himself a test like around the world trip, or to europe that required lots of meetings and stress he says if i dont perform top level, you have to tell me because ill resign. In any case, that ever happened. Became great at managing his time and stress generally getting himself through second term. Watched the rest of this program, visit our website at the booktv. Org and search for Susan Eisenhower or the title of her book using the box at the top of the page. You are watching tv on cspan2. Every weekend with the latest nonfiction books and authors. Cspan2, created by americas Cable Television company as a Public Service and brought to you by your television provider. Next on both tvs afterwards, the National Reviews Kevin Williamson recounts politics and everyday lives of the White American working class and travels through parts of appalachia interviewed by Washington Examiner columnist billy. Afterwards is a weekly Interview Program giving top nonfiction authors about the latest work