Transcripts For CSPAN2 2015 National Book Awards 20151122

Lets have a big round of applause for the National Book festival. [applause]. Show your love. Excellent. [applause]. And a little tip you need to check out their amazing website, National Book. Org. I have been there, it is exciting, it is addictive. I have have made it my homepage. I start every day at National Book data work. If you go there you can literally spend all day on the faqs, because you know all of those questions that you have frequently asked about the National Book foundation . They are answered at last. For example, one question i have found myself asking frequently is what is the National Book foundation . If you do not know. You just applauded for them and you do not know who they are. Do not lie to me National Book award audience, you are better than that really. Okay so i went to National Book. Org faqs and heres what i found. In 1986, the Publishing Community establish the National Book foundation, a notforprofit notforprofit organization to oversee the awards, diversify the base of philanthropic support, and expand their mission. At this point i found myself losing consciousness. But check out the website, it is awesome. National book. Org, ladies National Book. Org, ladies and gentlemen. Lets hear it [applause]. I am so honored to be a host tonight, i am here because i guess for the same reason you are here, i love books. We are all here, everybody all here, everybody in this room loves books. Right . [applause]. Even the agents love their books and they are here tonight too, they are representing. I grew up in household that was filled with books. My parents were super intellectuals, they both were Phi Beta Kappa graduates, they met as undergraduates at harvard and i say that last thing at the risk of making you hate them. It has, really the most alienating thing you can say to anybody is that you went to harvard, it is true. Is true. It is true, admit it. Like for example if i told you that i cooked math for example, you would be like we should be compassionate, we do do not know what led him to cook math. But if i told you i went to harbor you would be like what it dick wright. [laughter] and you would be right. So as a super smart kid it was challenging for me growing up. I remember one time i was in middle school, were sitting around the dinner table and i guess i was looking a little glum, a little down, my dad said to me, whats wrong . I said, all of the kids at school are continuously telling me im queer. In those days, in the 70s we are meant weird, on cool, on popular, that sort of thing. My of thing. My dad looked at me and he said, they are not continuously telling you you are queer. They are continually telling you, you are queer. Continuously would be your queer, youre queer, youre queer, youre queer. [laughter] continually would be your queer, youre queer. The moral of that story is that that is why i am severely damaged. Yes, its true. Well, i want to thank you for letting me talk about myself in the last five minutes. Although, i must say say if you are not in the mood to hear people talk about themselves you have come to the wrong place tonight. If history is any guide is going to kind of be a theme up in here tonight. But thats cool because its the National Book award. Ladies and gentlemen are you ready for the show . [applause]. Are you ready . [applause]. I have hosted this three times and i have got to say, this is the best National Book award audience i have ever dealt with. You guys are a pleasure. In absolute pressure. I am not doing this for the money, i am not being paid. The National Book foundation made that abundantly clear. They were like, you are getting a free meal and a metro card a menu or out out of here. I was like, dude, i did not get into publishing to make money, okay. That would be insane. They are like cool, no cool, no metro card, so it was good. [laughter] all right, we are going to begin our presentation with the literary and award. Is that even no word . Literary in. That sounds like an faq to me. What is a literary inches while we while we are about to find out. The literary and award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary committee. Our presenter was an innovated teacher, deputy chancellor and author of a School Leaders guide to excellence. She is now chancellor of the new York City Department of education, ladies and gentlemen, my hero, carmen farina. [applause]. So now i know you have to be both literate and funny to stand up here. So hopefully one of the 2i can do. It is really is really my pleasure to be here today to give this award to James Patterson. It is is a gift to an educator to have a writer that really gets people to read their books. He contributed and donated it to literacy to middle school children. Now if any of you have not had a seventh grader in your life, consider yourself lucky. For those of you who have had a seventh grader in your life, and you survived it, consider yourself even luckier. So what James Madison did but did not have to do, he decided to write for middle school audience. I was privileged enough to be in a room when he was talking to these middle school kids about reading. What he did with something ive been telling people for years to write when they write to middle school. Make the books growth, make them really interesting and a sense that everything goes wrong in their lives, make it as negative as possible and you will have immediate readers. I have three grandsons, one of which looks at a book and he breaks my heart because it is the last thing he wants to do. After meeting james and he donated books to all of our six graders and the new york city schools, i took the book about living life in middle school and charlie said wow, he really gets us. So it is wonderful to be able to say that there is a writer who sees beyond his own life and his own ability to write and make money, and he says what he wants to do is give the gift of literacy to other people. So for that and all of the other things he has done, i want to say James Patterson and my mind is a hero, and i hope many more of you will step up to the plate and help the children of new york city become more eager to read and what rights. Thank you so much. [applause]. Thank you carmen. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Special thanks to little brown, michael teich, reagan author, larry kirschbaum, for sticking with me through thick and thicker since i was 26. Over one dozen years ago. Thanks also to barb barnett who is also here. It is a long way from north plank road in new york to the National Book awards. I feel exhilarated and proud happy to have my wife and son here. But to be honest i also feel a little uncomfortable, i feel exhilarated as it is a long way from newburgh. I feel uncomfortable because well, i am the elephant in the room, the bowl in the china shop, the stranger in a strange land, the big mac at ship chipper on a. Let me me tell you a few things about myself and maybe you not to give me as a stranger after tonight. It is relevant to my being here that newburgh was a tough town when i was a kid, it still is a tough town. My father grew up in the newburgh poorhouse called the pokey. His mother, mike, there was a char woman who cleaned the poorhouses bathrooms and kitchen. For her work, she and my father got to share a room. When my father was heading up to world war ii he received a phone call who is also going off to war. This man, George George hazelton said that his parents told him the night before that they loved him very much but they were not his birth parents. He had been adopted when he was one year old. Then George Hazelton revealed that he was my fathers brother. My grandmother have been forced to give up her brother george for adoption before my father was born. That is vintage newburgh. My other good grandfather owned a small restaurant there, the cook was an africanamerican woman named laura. When i was i was six, laura was having problems with her husband, she moved in with our family. That is the way it was in our house. I think i spent more time with lauras family than my own, and that experience was a very loving and lovely black family is how i came to write the alex cross novels. So thats where it started. During my senior year is a Patrick High School in new burke, i applied to harvard, yale, and bates, think i did not end up at harvard. I never got a response. So i want to see the christian brother who was principal of the high school, he said that he never sent my transcripts to any of those secular schools. This is a true story. Only to the affiliated Catholic Colleges. He then told me that i had a full scholarship to the Catholic College to which i had never applied. My years at that school, Manhattan College turned out to be wonderfully rewarding, it was a terrific experience. After matt had after manhattan i went to grad school and literature at the end are built, also rewarding. I took a job in advertising partly, believe it or not because i had been rejected for a job driving a taxi cap. The dispatcher said my hair was too long, i wish i had that problem now. He called me a communist and chased me out of the garage. That is nonfiction folks. Possibly to prove that i was not a communist, i took the job in advertising but i have been clean for over 20 years. During my years as a student and while i was working the night shift at mclean hospital, in belmont, i fell in love with novels and short stories. I read everything. My favorite novels to this day are mr. Bridge and mrs. Bridge. When i was 25i wrote a novel of my own, a mystery called a Thomas Bearman number. It number. It was turned down by 31 publishers. It then one and edgar as the best first mystery novel of the year. I keep a list of all the editors who turned on my first novel. Sometimes they semi books and asked for blurbs. Mostly though, they are dead. Because of these experiences especially growing up in newburgh i have always felt compelled to do the best i can, compelled to tell the stories i am capable of, especially stories for children, compelled to start an imprint for kids called jimmy with the simplest possible mission, when a kid finishes a jimmy book, he or she will say please give me another book. What a sweet thing to hear from your child. Please give me a no other book. Im also compelled to innovate because i feel publishing needs to innovate more, much more. On occasion i find myself stupidly standing up and saying i believe publishing is in trouble, that i believe American Literature is in some trouble, i am compelled to try to help independent bookstore survive and prosper and to help School Libraries in any way i can. When scholastic and i made an offer last year to give money to School Libraries we received over 28,000 pleas for pleas for help in the first ten days. That tells an incredible story about our School Libraries. I guess i am doomed for being a doer, a serial doer actually. Actually. I encourage the talented people in this room to always be doers. There is so so much to do right now. Lets all be literary ends, whatever the hell that means. Actually, i think most of us know what that means. Lets find a way to way to make sure theres another generation of readers out there, and bookstores, and libraries, and healthy, flourishing flourishing publishers. One must newburgh story. During the summer, my good grandfather, poppy would take me on his delivery route once a week and he would deliver ice, frozen food. We would we would be up at 4 00 a. M. Packing up his truck. We all know that is not the most romantic thing in the world to be driving a truck early in the morning. But but every morning my grandfather would mortar over the mountain over west point and would be singing at the top of his voice, that clumsy truck would be bouncing over the roads, he had a terrible voice. He would say he would say things like o susanna or put another nickel in the nickelodeon. He tell me, jim when you grow up i dont care if youre a truck driver president of the United States, just remember when you go over the mountain to work in the morning you have got to be singing. I do. I hope all is the same for you. That is it, the, the fourminute autobiography, vintage James Patterson. By the way, i did not wear a tux because the new burke tux is powder blue with a ruffled shirt thank you so much for this precious moment. [applause]. Lets hear one more time for James Patterson, ladies and gentlemen. [applause]. Before we go on just a little behind missing stuff that may interest you. The organizers have given me a rundown of the evening. With stage directions for me that really leaves nothing to chance. Im not suggesting they think i am an idiot, but it is possible based on reading this. For example, after i introduce carmen after i introduce carmen farina, it says and i quote, he takes a seat just offstage, water available. So i guess after five minutes of speaking will be so parched i will need to rehydrate. Well, it has been done. I can carry on now. They also provided me with a protein biscuit. I am good to go. How are the National Book awards working out for you so far . Are you enjoying the evening . Okay. The best is yet to come. The best is yet to come. Now, to present the medal for distinguished contribution to american letters, she letters, she is the author of the invisible circus, emerald city and other stories, look at me, which was nominated for the National Book award in 2001, and the bestseller the key. Her most recent novel is also a National Bestseller and won the 2011 pulitzer prize, the National Foot critics circle award for fiction, and the Los Angeles Times book price, ladies and gentlemen, price, ladies and gentlemen, i love her, jennifer egan. [applause]. In 100 years, assuming there are still people on earth and they still read books it is hard to imagine a way they may better understand American Life in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, then by reading done novels. His sensibility is epic, i use that word despite the fact that epic is going the way of awesome because no other will exactly do. This gale of delillos inquiry is global and historic, over 45 prolific years he has pushed deep into the fault line where the pressures where ordinary humans collide with the pressures of politics and history. There is tux but in the sheer range of his book, who else could follow underworld, a kaleidoscopic saga 50 years of American Life with a body artist and novel in which one primary character may be a dream or a ghost. More than once his books has raised this question, what role can an artist hope to play in a world where experience is so muffled and flattened by technology that the only authentic act are acts of violence . But i am getting it wrong harping on his ambition, to my mind his work is most astounding on the level of the sentence. He has an impasse gift for capturing rhythm and speech. It was the dialogue in his book that made me realize conversation is mostly repetition and that people never really answer each other. His mimicry can be very funny but it is also what renders us the humanity of his character. Readers of libra are unlikely to forget the sweetly, dogged dogged narration of Lee Harvey Oswalds mother, marguerite. His prose never settle for mere beauty or lyricism. The most familiar thing become strange in descriptive hands as if he were conjuring the negative state around them. To quote, his own description is 1991 novel, she liked working past the theory of this is it. Important important to keep going, obliterate the sure thing and come upon a moment of blessing. His work is made of stealthy blessings. Later, a writer set up his own profession, what terrace gain, novelist loose. The danger they represent equals our own failure to be dangerous. 1991. What will happen to reading and writing in this new century . It is a question question im guessing most people in this room have asked with a certain urgency. My own answer is always the same, it is up to us, the writers. If we capture the cadences and textures of contemporary life in ways that feel essential, people will read us. John delillos nimble nimble and innovative fiction has done this repeatedly. He has answered his own question the artists who can show us our american lives at this moment and help us fathom them is performing an essential role. Im so grateful to him for the rigor and playfulness of his work and for proving to my generation of writers that fiction can still do anything it wants. It is my great honor and pleasure to present don delillo with this award. [applause]. I am here to talk about myself. Books, this is why we are here this evening, lately i have been looking at books that stand on to loan shelves in a room just down the hall from the room where i work. Early books, paperbacks everyone, the first book i ever owned and they resemble some kind of nutty, evil plunder. Old and scarred, weathered and would crumble like they human. Im human and the strain when i left the book from the shelf gently, i understand again the power of memory that a book carries with it. What is there to remember . Who i was, where i was, what these books meant to me when i read them for the first time. The house of the dead, first printed in june 1959, 50 cents. Adventures in thin trade, may may 1956, cover illustration includes a woman wearing black stockings and nothing else. There are number scrawled on the inside of the front cover, did i write his number . Do i do i remember that it naked woman more clearly and do i recall the stories in the book . Thirtyfive cents. Words on paper, books with objects, handheld, each wrinkled spine bearing the title. The lives inside, authors and characters, the lives of the books themselves, books in rooms, the one room apartment where i used to live and where i read the books that stand on the shelves all of these years later. Where i became a writer myself. Many of these books were packed in boxes, hidden for years. Maybe this is why thought on try and find myself gazing at the two long rows in the room down the hall. Reflections in a golden eye, margins of each page resemble the nicotine stains of the smokers hands, back in in the time when the book was written. The fourth printing 1953, 25 cents. Are any of the writers of these old, frail volume still alive . I do not have to study the authors names to think of recent departures. Friends, florentino, matheson, and others. Some others i did not get to know nearly as well. Book, the word, a set of written, printed, or blank pages, fastened along one side, tapes between protective covers. An old definition leading and needing to be expanded. Here on the shelves are the old paperbacks, books still in their native skin. When i visit the room, the room, i am not the writer was to spend taking his way through some sentences unless she did of paper, curled onto an old typewriter. Im the guy who live under that thats the guy who lives down the road. Here, i am the grateful reader. Thank you for this honor. [applause]. Don delillo ladies and gentlemen. [applause]. Enjoy your dinner and we will be back with the National Book awards. Thank you. [applause]. Good evening, on behalf of the board and the National Book Foundation Want to welcome you to the 66 National Book awards. We are packed this evening, it is great to see so many of you here, it is a special evening. The National Book awards are the biggest night of the year for the National Book foundation but it is not the only thing we do. We are going to show you something, some of the work that the staff have been working on, one of the programs here we have a video, we are ready to run that video. When i was young i never read books for pleasure. It took me a really long time to come around to the idea of even being a reader and one of the things that book up does is make books pleasurable for kids. To me, that is one of the most important things you can do for a young person. The National Book foundation started in 2007 as an intervention. We believe everyone, we believe everyone, regardless of who they are, where they live is entitled to experience the benefit and joy of reading. We need books. We get to analyze and play game space on the books. And book up, kids get to choose and keep the books they read. We hire authors to keep students engagement and books. Book up is a National Program serving over 420 students annually. Our book up faculty is key to that success. If you teach book up, you know kids are really excited about books. I have i have never seen kids as excited as the way they are when they come in with all of the books and they realize they get to keep them. It is on parallel. This is often our kids first opportunity to build a library for themselves and their family. Something that such an, they are provided at 25,000 bucks for you of charge. We also take them on field trips to local libraries and bookstores, we give them money to spend on books of their choosing. I went on a field trip with book up. To see the kids excited and being engaged with literature that is really fantastic. I want to be another when i grow up im book up actually gives me ideas on how to be a good author. If you have a bad day and come to book up, you can finish off on a good note. Youre always optimistic when youre in book up. A book could actually tell you everything about themselves. Kids will always need this opportunity. You can see see a lot of them are used to not be in themselves. When when working with schools of color, there is a certain shock to see us in bringing in books for their black and brown faces with books that represent who they are. Book up targets most vulnerable population. Can we do this through out this clear . We want to be able to bring this to more sites. That when an organization is nationally recognized as the National Book foundation it really understands the need to keep it. Its really important. Important. Its going to speak to Lgbt Community who feels isolated. Its good to to know someone is looking out for them. We want to make book up available for every state, every school, for every student. Donate now and help the National Book foundation create a new generation of lifelong, passionate readers all across the country. The best thing they say to me a book up is, what are we reading next . Thank you. And thank you to the terrific National Book Foundation Staff for their great work on this and other programs. Thank you. [applause]. One of the things that is special about tonight is it is a night when our literary stars,. We have amazing writers with us tonight. I would like to recommend some of the writers in the room by name here, it is an incredible list. I will ask you to hold your applause, let me run through some of the writers who are here. We have winners of the pulitzer prize, michael cunningham, jennifer egan, Annette Gordon reed, annette is also winner of the National Book award and a member of National Book foundation board. Adam johnson, Vijay Schwartz and casey smith. We have National Book circle winners, francine, cap the politics. We have edgar winter lauren whitman, david simon, winners, winners of the National Book award, sherman lick sea, robert caro, of course of course don delillo, terrance hayes, marianne hoberman, phil klein, tim weiner, gloria whalen. Please chime in recognizing these great writers who are here. Thank you for being here. [applause]. Now before we go on to the Award Ceremony we need to thank our financial sponsors first. Thank you, barnes noble, Penguin Random house. Big supporters, choral graphics, lyndon meyer Book Publishing papers, amazon, the barth foundation, google, harpercollins, lavender, debra wiley, and the other charitable trusts. Think often make this possible. [applause]. Think it to the after Party Committee. Everyone is invited to the after Party Committee it is in the balcony behind me. Can shannon, rachel, paul morris, debra, and jim martin, thank you. Thank you to our extraordinary dinner cochairs who have transformed this dinner, thank you morgan, debra, and shelley. Thank you. Thank you to my fellow Board Members who work so hard and care about the foundation and its mission. I have one more thank you, i have a big thank you here. So our executive director harold announced last spring he is going to step down next spring. Harold has been doing this for more than ten years, he has made a real difference in the world. Just a few things that have happened, i jotted down a few of them on the way down here today. Since he arrived, book up, you saw the video, 535 awards, National Book awards on campus, these were programs launched, moving to this venue if you remember the old venue was not so great. Adding a long list, adding the after party, announcing the finalists on National Television and national radio, a Live Streaming event which is happening tonight. There countless are countless ways in which harold has made a difference. We all him a great deal and of course we decided to give him a gift tonight. You spent time trying to figure out the right gift, morgan and i spent some time on it. So we came so we came up with a good idea, the idea was signed First Editions of the two books the judges voted to be the best works of fiction ever to win a National Book award for fiction. So those two books, when we did this a few years ago, morgan where the complete stories im Flannery Oconnor which won the award in 1972, and a dismal man by ralph it which won the award in 1953. Amazing, right. [applause]. So it turns out getting a signed First Edition by oconnor is very hard. I was talking to morgan about it, i i was saying i cant find this. Turns out it is actually impossible because the book was published in 1971 and she passed away in 1964. So, we did get a First Edition but not signed. We dig it assigned First Edition of invisible man. It is inscribed to someone and i try to look into it today to see if i can more about it. I was really struck by the inscription. I will reach you about it. This is what it says. This copy was inscribed by mr. Ellison to a woman named Helen Williams, who is quite likely the same Helen Williams who is credited with being the first, dark skin, africanamerican model to be featured in mainstream advertising campaigns. Ms. Williams left the United States to escape discrimination to work in france where she found success modeling for prominent designers such as christians your. She later returned to the United States and was a successful model here for many years. So the addition we have for harold is signed personally inscribed by ralph ellison, it is written to Helen Williams. Just knowing harold as i do and knowing his values, i thought this would make it more meaningful as a gift. So i would like to ask harold to step up and come up on stage and give him these gifts. Please demand recognizing harold. [applause]. Thank you. Thank you, please sit down because we want to move things forward. Thank you david, thank you to everybody here. I have not spoken at the National Book award since my first year when i talked about what my literary values were. I do want to clear one thing up before i go. It comes from the frequently asked questions section of the National Book awards. Eight literary and is a person who dedicates his or her life to the study or enjoyment of literature. It is a 19thcentury word that went out of fashion until it was revived by the National Book awards ten years ago to start the literary and award. I consider it myself a literary and in the oldstyle and in the new style because dedicating myself to literature has been one of the great pleasures of my life. I do want to thank the board of the National Book foundation for giving me the opportunity to work with you. I want to thank the staff of the National Book foundation because none of the things that we have done in the past ten years would have been possible without their creativity, imagination, and energy. Really, they deserve a lot of credit for anything that has happened. [applause]. The last thing i would like to say is i would like to thank everybody here and in the book industry, out there wherever someone is watching. When you are a book person there really is only one thing you can do, and that is work and live a life of books. You really do not want to do anything else. The fact that i been able to do that for the past 12 years has been one of the great pleasures of my life. I think you very much. I thank you very much for giving me that opportunity. [applause]. Now, on behalf of the foundation of 12 finalists, congratulations again and good luck. On to the will Award Ceremony. [applause]. Okay, the awards will be given out in reverse health and medical order. So all of you fans of alphabetical order, i am terribly sorry that is just the way we will roll tonight. Young peoples literature, [applause]. You are young ones. Poetry [applause]. Nonfiction [applause]. And finally, fiction. [applause]. To present the National Book award in young peoples literature is the author of dark water, a 2010 finalist for the National Book award in young peoples literature. You cant leave me now, true stories of true crime. She and her husband tom mcneil are the authors of crooked, zipped, crushed, and the decoding of lana morris. Ladies and gentlemen, laura mcneil. [applause]. Reading off spring and summer in this incredibly diverse category reminded me that it is even harder to write well for young people then it is to feed them well. You have to start with what they like and introduce complexity. Youre trying to make a dish that they will eat now but still appreciate later. When they will be proud to have loved. The five nominated books in this category have achieved that. All of them speak to Young Readers without condescension, about the transition from not knowing who you are to knowing both who you are and who you want to be. I speak not only for myself but for my incredibly well read fellow judges, john joseph adams, greg mary, terry listening, and elliott schreiber. And thinking these finalists for writing books that can be loved for a lifetime. Allie benjamin, the thing about jellyfish. [applause]. Laura ruby, bone gap [applause]. Steve shine cans, most dangerous. Clapmac and daniel and daniel ellsberg, and the secret history of the vietnam war [applause]. Nails schuster man, challenger [applause]. And noel stevenson, pneumonia [applause]. We take great pleasure in awarding this years National Book award in young peoples literature to Neil Schuster man [applause]. Wow. I have finally achieved my fathers dream for me. To be an nba star. [applause]. I dont know how the judges did this, the field the books for the finalist were so, everything was so different, it was like comparing apples to oranges to grapefruits, to pomegranates and bananas. I am just thrilled, there are so many people to thank. Starting with my editor, rosemary brosnan. [applause]. Shes shaped this book and took this bizarre story and then help me make it something that people could read. Everyone at harpercollins, really every editor in my career who has shaped me as a writer from david yale to stephanie owens. Everyone in my career, careers made from so many different people helping you and believing you, believing in you. From my agent need andrea brown who believed in me since i was still in college when i wrote my first book and came back to her years later. She has been there supporting, she has been a friend as well as an agent. Everyone in my career, Debbie Dibble hill, steve fisher, trevor eggleston, lee rosenbaum, geopolitical, so many people, my kids, brendan, gerrit, joelle, and aaron. , joelle, and aaron. But for this book mostly, brendan. Who, when he was in second grade did an ocean report on the marianas trench. I learned, with him the challenge is the deepest place in the world. Challenger deep, i thought what thought what a great title for a book. For years i had no story, just a title. Until brendan until brendan was a teenager and he started having some problems. He started to have anxiety that got worse and worse, he started to believe things that were not true, he starts having hallucinations and over very brief period of time he fell off a cliff into a place that many people have trouble coming back from. He was diagnosed for many Different Things from psychotic depression, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, but those labels for Mental Illness, theyre just labels and it is so free flowing it presents differently for every patient. In the depths of his illness when he cannot tell the difference between what is real what was and he said to me, dad i sometimes feel like i am at the bottom of the ocean screaming at the top of my lungs and no one can hear me. And then i knew what challenger deep was going to be about. But i could not write it then. It took years until he was better, until he was thriving, until he was in a much in a much better place and came back from the depth that i asked him if i could write a book about Mental Illness. Not about him but about a kid who is to going through a lot of the same things as he was. I took artwork that he did during the time that he was struggling with that and used it to help shape fantasy sequences of the book and wove him in with real life. I worked with him every step of the way, the response has been amazing. It has been a healing process for both of us. A cathartic cathartic experience going out there and sharing this book with people and hearing how it is affecting people and how it will continue to help people and affect people in a positive way to open a dialogue about Mental Illness, to remove the stigma of Mental Illness, and to show people suffering that they are not alone. One out of every three families in this country based Mental Illness in one way or another. We have to deal with that, we have to accept that it would have to open up and talk about it more so we can understand it better and i hope this book helps to do that. I i also want to mention doctor robert woods the dr. Who this is dedicated to he is with us tonight. He helps a brendans life and it means so much that he is here. But most of all, brendan, this is yours as much is it is mine and i would like you to come up right now and share it with me. [applause]. , on out. [applause]. Thank you. Thank you all, very, very much. [applause]. Thats our show ladies and gentlemen, good night. [laughter] i just think its unfair to whoever has to come up next, so im trying to get you off the hook. That was a amazing, another round of applause for father and son. Amazing. [applause]. To present the National Book award for poetry is a writer whose books include, vast animal which one the theodore poetry pies try price, his honors include an open voice award and fellowships from the National Endowment for the arts and the provincetown fine arts work center. Ladies and gentlemen, tim siebel. [applause]. It is so nice to be here, it is a real honor. It is certainly different being on this end of it, coming off as a judge opposed to being in the audience as a finalist. It is a thrill either way. The inner rookie has a poem, and a dark time and it begins with in a dark time that i begins to see. I think given our Current Situation in the world and the events in paris being just one marker of such things, it seems clear that given the books that i and the other judges encountered clearly poets, and i think all writers are trying to respond in such a way that maybe we invite a little more sanity into the world. So it did not make the task any easier and i think i can speak for the other judges in same there were so many good books. That is a blessing but at the same time it is overwhelming too. There are too many books to love, too many books to want to carry forth into the spotlight. Anyway, let me thank my fellow judges, willie perdomo, kathy pollock, jan weiss miller, and unfortunately absent tonight sherman alexis, he is not feeling well but we thank him. So here are five finalist. Ross k for catalog of on a vast gratitude. It was published by the university of pittsburgh, karen paes, [applause]. Published by penguin books. Robin lewis, voyage of disabled beans, published by alfred a. Eight a low moan [applause]. Bright, dead, dead, thanks, published by milkweed additions. And finally, Patrick Phillips published also by alfred a. [applause]. The winner is, robin carl lewis for voyage of disabled beings [applause]. Imac. Thank you very much for this profound and unfathomable honor. [applause] [laughter] thank you to the National Book foundation. Especially those of you in the room. For the rest of my day i will never forget this moment. Thank you. I prepared a Little Something to say because i am really type a, and you do not want me to ad lib. So a little bit about the longest epic in the world. A minor character that i love very much, and he is the son of the king, which means he is a prince of outcasts, as it were. His but was that in order to achieve his goal for the study. From the woods, low born. And so 1st he had to reject him. Was determined. And so back into the woods and practice every day for many, many, many years. One day all the princes of the court found here no one could perform that kind. Indeed, it turned out to be a closet. When they confronted, they were like how did you learn to be a master of archery . About the statute. For years and years and years. Because of his devotion to his teacher the cuts granted him an incredible skill. Not only because i love the maharajah in my own mind have fashioned callisters use. If there is indeed anything worthy of praise it is because i have copied and stolen from the illustrious writers every gorgeous song and gesture. They are exquisite with generosity. Please allow me to thank my teachers. Mary mchenry, near, the great caribbean poet, evelyn brooks, Marilyn Nelson kate, percival, Deborah Landau cornelius and most especially the person i call the sharon code because she is so magical. Thank you as well to the institutions who supported my work. I am going to skip, but over the past year, my 1st book which is why im blown away. But i could never imagine that aa manuscript to be handled so tenderly over such profound as might have been by alfred a. A littleknown story about obsessively while about. Okay. Go figure. Long before i became a writer i have very interested in censorship. And so is stored a person came into my field the suppression. What is not known generally tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars to prepare for litigation, so devoted to the authors that no matter what your protected them. You can publish whatever you want and i will litigate. So he went on to practice literary activism. The 1st person to publish. He wound up publish. Ty morrison, my angela, k smith, kevin young it was a profound honor. A long historicala long historical arch. Want to thank the people who worked in my book. That guy. Andrew craven, brittany morons iteration, Nicholas Latimer and the sublime deborah garrison. [applause] thank you for approaching my work with such meticulous and tender and profound sense. Nobody has said small hands. Thank you. [applause] im going to take just a little bit more of it. [applause] thank you for your contribution. Allowing us to take part in what is surely one of the richest moments. Child of the 60s and 70s. I dont remember what movie. She is a friend in my mind. And so i finally would like to thank my family. The bestthe best friends but one could ever have hoped for. Thank you. Adrian perry, alex flaherty, claudia rankin, Elizabeth Alexander and most especially my deliriously good friend. I need to imagine also that my father and grandparents and cousins are all sitting on star right now. Laughing. This is your night. This is your day. This award is completely for you. Thank you for your profound patience and love. I want to end with a poem because its appropriate. Pablo neruda. In light of what is happening all over the world it has been happening all over the world for millennia. I would like to read a beautiful poem by him for leave. Now you to 12. Lesbian exotic moment. We would be altogether. Fishermen and the colts he would not harm whales. Those who prepare all the fire, victory and put on clean clothes and walkabout. What i want to not be confused life is what its about. If we were not so singleminded about keeping our lives moving and for once do nothing, perhaps you could enter of the sadness, never understanding ourselves. Perhaps the earth can teach us that when everything seems dead. Now all caps at 12. Thank you for this profound award and most especially for your intention, honor, gift. Very hard to be here. To prevent the National Book award for nonfiction and poetry including the bestsellers the zookeepers wife and most recently the human age, the world should buy us which received the 2015 pin David Thoreau work. Ladies and gentlemen. [applause] a pleasurea pleasure and an honor to be here this evening dow celebrate. Whatever we are now calling the genre. It includes everything from history and economics to immersion journalism politics, natural history, narrative nonfiction and memoirs of all different variations. Whatever we are calling it, the genre contains some of the finest literary writing ever devised in our timeless effort to make the world more sustainable. It is a genre they can be wickedly challenging. In recent years it has become wildly popular one in publishing. We had nearly 500 nonfiction books being part of a privileged quarrelsome bookclub. The authors and critics. [applause] adrienne mayor, paul draper and patricia collins. And here are the five nominees for nonfiction. Between the world and me. Published by eu and brow. Ill still. Published by little brown division. If the oceans rank. And Tracy K Smith ordinary life. [applause] have to do something. The only one that will get this joke. [applause] my editor is here, chris jackson. It is an incredible honor to be here. They see the finished copy they dont see the five drafts. If ii can make it to the finish line everything will be okay. Earlier today you already one. Its a beautiful come beautiful thing. Between the world and me, it comes out of a very real place. It was in fact an odyssey. There is only one thing that we really had at the core, and that was the death and murder and killing of my friend. A student with me at Howard University. Howard university was a Gathering Place for black people. All over the world the entire does for i never knew being black could be such a big thing. The africanamerican community, if you look at the notion that have saw the family. Privilege education. Phrases beautiful boy, and exceptional student. Couldve gone to harvard, princeton. Wanted to come to Howard University ive never met an individual that was so full of love and compassion thats why we wrote the book. He was killed because he was mistaken for criminal. We are okay with the presumption that black people somehow have angles and a predisposition. Every day you cut on the tv and see some sort of violence being directed at black people. Reaching for their license of being shot. Over and over and over again. I waited for 15 years for this moment. He was sent back out the streets to work. Im a black man in america. I cant parse that officer. I cant secure the safety. I canti cant go home. Its going to be okay. But i do have the power to do is say donna romine this life. I was will we did. It doesnt make it okay. We are not enrolled in a. We are not part of it. Thank you so much. [applause] okay. To present the National Book award for fiction the author most recently of the Nobel Laureate include the lost art of reading, why books matter and distracted time in the library of americas writing los angeles literary anthology. The book critic and former book editor of Los Angeles Times. Ladies and gentlemen david elin. [applause] thank you. A real honor and pleasure to be here tonight in the real honor to be part of the National Book awards. Made our work is a jury in the category especially rewarding and difficult. This list of finalists could have been a hundred books long. What fiction authors is the interior front. That is what fiction is always done. Questions about the health of fiction. It is healthy. We know this firsthand. I counted for something over 400 books. Having a collegial conversation about what matters. Not to come to a consensus about what we as a cherry think. We went through these books on the list. I want to thank my fellow jurors to what has been some of the most rewarding and intelligent and thoughtful conversations about literature ive ever had. We will move on. [applause] i just want to say ii am humbled to have had the opportunity to work with all of you. The finalists for the 2015 National Book award and fiction a refund by karen e bender. Published by counterpoint. The turner house by angela. States and furies. Fortune smiled by adam johnson. A little life by high noon in a horror. The 20152015 National Book award and fiction goes to fortune smiles. [applause] i was having the most wonderful, calm, relaxed evening. I honestly new with so many find fantastic finalists. I told my wife and kids, dont come across america. I should just say thank you. I publicist there is no finer place to be. In california going hollywood with the screening of the movie adaptation of his novel. So my love very, very deeply. I celebrate and champion that. They will get to keep reading him for years. By reading notes and i was a juror on the Fiction Panel last year i really enjoyed remembering that experience. I got to read about that i might never have picked up. Station 11. Books that i loved a great deal. It was great being a part of that. The books of been reading this year. Dates and furies in the life. [applause] my notes are necessary, sweeping, important, transcendent, funny, jeering , sensual, human. These are books that ii love a great deal and hope we all get to read them. My children