Hello everyone, good evening and welcome. Im the director of the Creative Writing Program and we are so happy to welcome our friend for over 15 years weve been honored to host the awards ceremony in this auditorium ended this year from the Creative Writing Program the finalists in the series of interviews can you hear me . Okay. On our blog and on the website and book critics. Org. We will be doing these over a twoweek period and its one that couldnt have been done without the interviewers and editors and publicists. Thank you also to the Board Members. And a huge thank you to the rest of the board. I wonder if we can give a round of applause to the board . [applause] they may mention this also, but it is entirely volunteer. The whole enterprise is a volunteer job, and it is preaching to the choir but we need to remember to call congresspeople and senators after they approved the elimination. [applause] we can also mention other things we might like to have happen. We would like to keep funding for health care and planned parenthood. The list goes on and on so we mention other things as needed. The americans for the arts are great organizations, so support them. And now it is my pleasure to turn the evening over to the book editor and president of the National Book critics circle. [applause] hello everybody. Its nice to see so many people here tonight very im the president of the National Book critics circle and it is my pleasure to welcome you to the Award Ceremony for the publishing and 2016. We are delighted to have you join us as we honor the outstanding books of the year in fiction, nonfiction, biography, autobiography, poetry and criticism. Id like to extend our gratitude to all those that have joined us here tonight from across the country and around the globe as well as the editors, publishers, agents and publicists who brought their work to our attention. The National Book critics circle was founded in 1974 out of a conversation that took place out of the Algonquin Hotel with a group of critics that wanted to establish rewards given to the critics themselves. Unlike other National Literary awards they can third from the nominations and offered by the reviewers and book review editors that make up the board. Among the extraordinary titles honored over the decades are ragtime, the woman warrior, Toni Morrisons photography, the changing lights of sand over and to name just a few grown to include more than 700 members from across the country so more than 200 nonvoting student members and supporting friends of the nbcc many of whom are here tonight and its expanded to include the john lander prize honoring the first book of any genre and the citation for excellence in reviewing the kick recognizing reviews and the Lifetime Achievement award for individuals or institutions that have made an extraordinary contribution to the world of letters. In these and other ways including the various activities, panels and events that they sponsor a throughout the years the organization has grown beyond what the founders might have imagined that we strive to build upon their example and further division. We launched a new initiative which aspires to identify and support the development of the next generation of book critics. The product went through an already hectic award season by Elizabeth Taylor a board member and other Board Members read more than 100th of missions from critics young and old. We are proud to announce the first nbcc fellows are taylor, paul gleason, zachary graham, summer mcdonald, Ishmael Mohammed and Heather Partington and i believe graham is with us here tonight. If you are, wha would you standd give some applause. [applause] this is the start of a great tradition i hope. Tonights ceremony is a culmination of 12 months of extensive reading, discussion, arguments, counter arguments online and facetoface. At the beginning of each year the 24 member board divides itself into the categories and in the months to follow it as read extensively as humanly possible in each of those categories. After the selection of the finalists in january all 24 Board Members read every one of the titles in a marathon that is testimony to the higher level of commitment by the board. Earlier today we met in the classroom here at the new school and talked through the group of finalists. Tonight we are proud to name the recipient of the award and i would like to ask all of the Board Members to stand up at this point so we might recognize them for their effort. [applause] the Board Members are elected to threeyear terms and several members are at the end of their terms this year and cycling off the board. I would like to recognize them individually. Call it bancroft, david, ron charles and camilla gerardo. [applause] the nbcc couldnt put together these events without the generosity and support of so many other people and institutions. Id like to thank in particular the new school and director of the protecting writing program and Lori Lynn Turner the director who always makes things run so smoothly. We think the school for its hospitality making the facilities available for our ceremony and id also like to thank the individuals and organizations that partnered or supported us this year and the institute for Public Knowledge and the center for fiction, james kaplan, the wine and spirits magazine, ace hotel. A special thank you as well to beth parker who joined to help publicize the nbcc and a special thanks to david who is up in the booth who keeps the Organization Running in small but crucial ways and also to the awards that undertook the task of putting together tonights event in our online vp who helps us maintain a robust presence online through the blog, twitter, facebook and instant graham. I invite you all to toast the finalists for the benefit reception following tonights ceremony. It will be held at the center a block from here at 55 west 13th street on the second floor. Tickets can be purchased at the door. The benefit reception is the only event for which we asked a donation and we greatly appreciate your support. In addition, the bookstore is here tonight selling copies of the books by all of the finalists and a Award Winners and we encourage you to patronize them so now to get things started, one more thing i want to say to the people as they come up to receive their award, you can come up from either side, come to the podium i would just ask that after you are done and receive your award stay at the stage for a moment there are photographers that wants to shoot you. [laughter] and then the newest board member is at stage left and will escort you into the green room where he will shoot a series of portraits and will accompany you back into the auditorium that way. It is easier than it sounds. So tickets are 20 would like to welcome the board member to present the prize. Thank you. [applause] good evening. It is an incredible honor for me to be here this evening to present this award which you probably know is given by the members for the best books of any genre. When i was in high school ten or 12 years ago, writing reviews for the Student Newspaper i read a lot of critics but the one i always looked for was john leonard. What i realized and strove to emulate was the unique combination of learning and levity and modesty, responsibility and generosity. He was a critic who was serious about literature but knew enough not to take himself too seriously. Long before it was popular to do so, he took a special interest in the new and minority voices in fiction so i think that he would be especially delighted in this years winner. The wonderful homecoming is an ambitious model that stands to the rack his arms around the experience of slavery. The spine of the story is a family tree. The debut traces the way both branches have a terrible sin of human bondage. He was born and grew up in the American South in huntsville alabama. She has an english degree from stanford and from the university of iowa she lives in new york city and writes like an angel it is my pleasure for any genre. [applause] congratulations. [applause] i am so grateful to be here celebrating with all of you tonight. Thank you to the National Book critics circle for this honor and to culinary and the late john leonard for championing new writers what a privilege it is to be recognized for the john leonard award tonight. I would also like to thank my brilliant editor, my firecracker of a publicist and my endlessly encouraging agent all of whom believe in this book so fiercely and another goes to Matthew Nelson for his exquisite partnership. Finally, i would like to thank my family especially my parents who came to this country with little more than the clothing on their backs and children on their arms in a time when it feels like every day refugees have new threats and their humanities i am ever more grateful for the sacrifices my parents made so that i could one day stand here before all of you and accept this award. Thank you again. [applause] good evening and welcome to the make america read again portion of the program. My name is greg and its been my privilege to serve as the chair of the committee. Each year the nbcc awards for excellence in reviewing to recognize outstanding work by one of our members. The citation is the knowing of the founding members of the organization. Since 2012, the citation comes with a thousand dollars cash prize endowed by the nbcc board member, yours truly. [laughter] on a personal note [applause] thank you. On a personal note, i would like to take a minute to say it was 50 years ago today that the book editor added that the title to the byline of this then 17yearold writer. Book critics who. [laughter] after careful deliberation, the committee selected the following finalists. They are julia klein, christian lorenzen, michelle and becca. Can we have a hand for these wonderful writers . [applause] this years citation goes to michelle dean. [applause] the journalism and criticism appears regularly in the guardian, the new republic, salon and many other distinguished publications. Originally trained as a lawyer shes been a fulltime writer since 2012. Her book about winning critics and intellectuals titled sharp, the women who made an art of having an opinion is forthcoming from grove atlantic. Without further ado, please join me in welcoming michelle dean. [applause] thank you. Congratulations. [applause] thank you to the nbcc for letting me get up and speak tonight. Im glad to be in this company. I think im expected to Say Something about criticism, but ive never been big on what i think about the claims of criticism. And anyway i kind of reject this whole business of drawing a line between writers. No good critic i know of ever considered herself a critic as opposed to a writer so i want to Say Something about writing instead. Not long ago, i saw a photograph of a small baby raccoon and it was hunched over on the road and the caption someone gave it sad when you realize you dont want to be responsible for anything anymore. You just want to nap and be small. I arranged my life so i see cute pictures of animal on the internet every day. Im not usually seized by them in the way that i was in this one. The desire to advocate, to give up, for me that this primal right now. Like everybody else alive i am fighting a slight response over time. Theres a lot going on. Every day as a fresh fear and outrage and even though we have all these tiny blips of action the internet posts, the petitions and arches, no single one of them is going to fix what is happening. The world is on the verge of something and one way to look at it is we are climbin as we are c of the moral universe but from the present advantage it is hard to see if it is spendin bendings justice the way Martin Luther king said in its natural to want to look away. I want to look away for the past few years i think we all have. This new world of ours that started before november 8 in thh and the struggle we presently find ourselves in isnt a mistake or a fluke. If she were around to tell us she would point out it something that has been simmering for years. It crept into our lives while we were nothing. It sometimes works that way but i still wish we hadnt missed it. As i thought about this a few weeks ago i picked up for the First Time Since i was a Canadian High School student and of course you know all the jokes now about approaching nonfiction and you dont need me to make another one but reading it but i thought was mostly this, there are still a few books like that being published. The application of literary to the question of power is kind of out of style and many writers seem interested in exploring the limits of fiction. The power and the way we create it and inflict it on others, these questions might have a role tha but they arent usuallt the central occupation. And to borrow a phrase from one of the speeches i would never ask a writer to be a jukebox but there is a kind of looking away going on right now by a vote of the writers that should know better and i am kind of troubled by it. It is our own tiny kingdom. We are so very often alone but it doesnt leave the responsibility of getting up and looking around. Im just as skeptical about literature as i am about the claims of criticism, but i do think there is a bottom line to writing. What youre supposed to do is Pay Attention and if the novelist pays attention to his characters, the documents before and a good critic pays attention to the things she has been brought to evaluate. Its the only thing that guarantees inside and it insige only weapon we have against power because you cant fight the things you cant actually see. The power a writer has is to make things individual. Telling a story about these things has this enormous power people are not going to forget the headline but they will remember a story so here is a story that i think about a lot. In my other writing as a journalist i met this young woman last year that had been literally trapped for most of her life. Her whole life or mother insisted she was incredibly sick then one day she realized her mother had been lying to her and had trapped the two of them in this fraud. She tried to get away but her mother physically wouldnt let her go so she found a young man on the internet, fell in love with him and after she asked him to he killed her mother and now shes in prison trying to figure out who she is in the aftermath of all of that. At the same time i was reporting the story i happened to be given a book to review and it was a break about a man pretty clearly did alter ego who felt trapped in his existence and i will say it here because i sai i set it n print i didnt like this novel but i read one of the reasons i disliked it is the incuriosity about actual suffering in the world. It turned into this rhetoric and it got funny in the way i yelled at him in print but i wanted to remind him to Pay Attention. Thank you. [applause] spee its been a privilege to chair the Lifetime Achievement but we wanted to chair in the committee its a Great Committee to chair because the potential nominees are phenomenal. The award honors the contributions to the literary culture. During the 34 years that the award has been, weve honored those like Toni Morrison whose achievements have been so universally acknowledged that the choice needed no explanation. Other years we have been pleased to call attention to such as Bill Henderson and Rolando Smith who hadnt received the recognition of the lifetime contribution to the literary culture deserved. This years recipient is Margaret Atwood. [applause] we honor the significant and sustained accomplishments for her work as an essayist and critic to more than 40 books for her influence on writers, editors, publishers and citizens across canada and the globe to imagine and create and write a world where human beings survive in surviving against the forces of history and culture and censorship or political assault, brutality, social disorder, surviving attacks on womens rights, human rights as well as environmental degradation and writing about surviving through literature with dignity and decency. For all this and more, she needs no introduction but youre going to get one anyway. To introduce Margaret Atwood im going to call to the stage cb, the literary agent since 1963 whose career began here in the city at the agency which was the first Literary Agency in the united to establish an 1880s. She later joined the john Cushman Agency curtis brown and in 1971 she opened the agency in Greenwich Village and 1975 moved to venice california taking her ranchers out west. Please welcome phoebe where. [applause] it is a privilege to be here. First i want to thank the critics and forgiving is so lovely for the writers they make it to circle it should be. Writers, critics and readers and around it goes again and again. I became the literary agent 48 years ago. Its hard to believe that because i dont feel that but as we all know, time goes very fa fast. I didnt read her until 1970, that i first discovered her in 1969 when i picked up her novel from the bookstore window in montreal. I took it back to my Brooklyn Heights apartment and read it through the night. As dawn came, i was so thrilled with it and with its brilliance that i went to the promenade and walked back and forth, back and forth, electric with the energy that came from those pages. I had to find her so i went to my office and called an editor that i know. His name was peter pearson. In those days the phones had two lines on them so i was on the one line dialing into the red light went on. I picked up the one with the red light and it was peter pearson, sorry, not pearson, peter davidson, excuse me. [laughter] so he said im about to publish a book by the canadian author and i thought you might like to consider it and i said i will if you namlet you name it margaretd and he said yes, so there we were and it all began serendipitously. About a year later when i met her, we were sitting across the table and i was very nervous about meeting her because i had read her novel and some of her poetry, but she didnt know anything about me. When i sat down at the table, she starts by asking what sign are you. So i said gemini and she said both of my parents are gemini. I thought okay tha felt okay thy well. [laughter] next question, can i see your palm. So she looked very carefully at both. I dont remember what she said except you have a lot of lines. [laughter] but not so long after weve just had that general conversation she said i think we should give it a try, so it began. Its published by simon and schuster but before it was published here in the states this would have been 1972, it was published in canada. The publisher was Jack Mcclellan who owned the company, whose father had created the company as a publisher of bibles. So, jack is a very flamboyant guy, and he knew that she had won the governor generals award for this article came. Now what happened is he invited her to a Publishing Party at his house, and i decided to fly from new york and go with her. And was i ever glad because when we arrived at this fine house in a fine part of town, there were a lot of cars and streets around it. So, in we walked and since margaret is small in statute and i was, we were able to get through the crowd without anybody really recognizing her that we needed to take a breath because there were far more people than we ever could have imagined. So, we stepped into the powder room and i remember looking at her and her looking at me and she said okay now what do we do. And i said we should be happy. Then i thought that was the wrong thing to say because i could see she could see further ahead as the fiction proves again and again and then almost any of us can see and i think she saw what was to come in her life was about to be changed. They went home to her home in toronto, didnt turn on any lights. I pointed to Say Something. I was excited and wanted to see some in, but i didnt. After a while she said i always wanted to be a good writer. I never expected to be a popular one. So, tim passes. Its now 1972, and at that time she was writing poetry and recognized it in this new York Community as a poet where they recognized her as an important novelist. She came down here and spoke several times and her poetry collections would be embraced by this new movement. For example, a couple of the titles are power, politics, margaret never identified herself as a feminist. She identified herself as a strong woman and independent woman and she was gracious to all those that were wanting to put her names on banners and join in the parade. But she didnt go that way. She just went back to her desk and kept writing. After surfacing, the next novel was wheres the coach when i need her. [laughter] i just want to explain something. Im actually not this did the usually. I traveled across the country and ive been sick with the flu so i am rather spacey and if margaret hadnt called me, i was asleep when she called me, i slept through the alarm clock so thats where all this comes from. [laughter] and im now getting a message that said none of my preferred networks are available which means that i cant refer to my computer because it will pick up the wireless. [laughter] i dont want to skip without talking about the books that came next. She has so many voices as a writer. Mostly she creates genres. There is a novel about eating out too much and living in words and not outward. Like swimming in lake ontario. After lady oracle was bodily harm and isnt this when you came in the picture . He became her editor. So she has been with us and we have been with one another for a very long time. After the story that is in a bad relationship she takes herself and gets involved in a war. Next is a big surprise. Margaret came to visit me in santa monica. I wasnt well at the time but after we finished our exchange i ask what are you working on and she never tells titles or what shes writing so i said you dont have to answer anything but is there anyway i can help you and she said no, i have to do this but it scares me. Overnight it became an international bestseller, and almost overnight with President Trump coming and its become a bestseller again. On april 26, there is a ten part series and the books are selling very strongly. We went to the Berlin Film Festival with the people margaret wanted, well actually it wasnt exactly because the director had a fight, they wanted more special effects so there was a german director who went with us and margarets wonderful, handsome guy, a very good novelist himself recognized in canada but his work has not come here yet. Hed vote to books, one is the bedside book of birds and the other is the bedside of these. Its a book with wonderful photographs and drawings from all over the world in overtime. It is a treasure and is available in hardcover. I can tell i am talking to longs was the skip forward. We are in berlin after the wall has fallen and we are going across checkpoint charlie. A big moment. They are driven into the east berlin and it looks like the set of world war ii on a disaster film. Its a terrifying landscape. We pull up in front of what looks like it has been a Movie Theater and someone opens the door for us. Inside is a crowd of people. The film is shown and afterwards people stand and clap and begin bringing flowers to the stage to margaret and harold, and im not exaggerating saying some of the piles of flowers were this high. A man stood up and said to margaret you understood what we were and what it was like a. Thank you. Margaret was continuing to write poetry, short stories, essays. After detail she wrote about girls growing up together and how nice and helped happy they can be with one another. Its a book that is the most autobiographical because it describes a character who lived in the woods like margaret, the north woods of quebec. I wont do any more descriptions of novels. I will take a few deep breaths and coldest may close. Its remarkable to be associated and partnered with a great talent because the talent is always electric and voluminous and it has inspired me for 48 years and its been so exciting for me to be the agent of this talent, to work with the publishers impersonating the manuscripts in helping them to see the value. Its always a gamble for publishers. Sometimes they dont see as far ahead as others do but its fortunate the way margaret has attracted wonderful editors and publishers. My every days have been filled with this woman and her work. Its been an enormous privilege. Before i came here, i took all the books i had and i put them on my dining room table and as i lifted them one by one i thought my god, there she is, for all of us forever. So there she is for all of us, forever on pages everywhere. [applause] [applause] i am very happy to be here because they left me across the border. [laughter] i said to somebody do you think i should leave my computer and cell phone at home and they said how many do you want to sell a [laughter] thank you, phoebe for coming here all the way. You got here and made it through and weve had a thought of as ventures like that and im happy that theyre worse elite. She did a preemptive and got a package in the mail. The publicist from doubleday is here but hello to jim marshall. [inaudible] more friends from over the years. I am deeply honored to have been given the Lifetime Achievement award. Youve placed me with the most indeed. I would like to say how it is that you as book critics are doing what you do. A section of poetry, true but i put in some time as a book critic and i have to say it is both the hardest thing ive ever done as a writer. It carries a heavy responsibility because you cannot unfortunately just make stuff up. The task is to be plausible that criticism is to be accurate and it was considered and in judgment. Every author knows how much work has gone into the book. Therefore there is much given. [inaudible] it can be a struggle. Book criticism is a thoughtless task. You therefore no that all positive adjectives that flight and will be forgotten. Another thing that is in perfection in their work is they wont let it go until the end of time. One raged at me it is an insult. I didnt know. The period is when i was giving books by women to review. It was feared on the part of men that they would be reprimanded for not getting it right or one works by the others in the group that were considered. Tim passed and i was able to review the minimum more. It helps if they are dead. They cant get back at you. [laughter] i did some living ones. Why do i do such a painful task but for the same reason i give blood, we must all do our part because if nobody contributes to this enterprise, there wont be the most needed. Blood or book reviews, they are in the same package. Right now what we do as critic is needed. Never have they felt so challenged or have there been so many sides of the political spectrum to shout down the voices of others to twist and manipulate and vilify reliable and trusted publications. A dictatorship is for three things to consolidate its power. First, to erase the independent judiciary and of the Law Enforcement agencies. Second, to control the harmony to the cove rv into dictatorship and to shut down independent Media Outlets and all opinions of its own in a pluralistic and open democracy. The very air is always fragile but sometimes more than others. They are sometimes and they will be grateful to you. Not everywhere because they starve to the so are a few places and i hope there will be fewer such places. I will jewish this Lifetime Achievement award for you and it is the next one. Where did this lifetime to as thanks again. [applause] did he good evening. Im going to announce the poetry tonight. They couldnt overcome stella to join us in Belfast North ireland where she is on the fulbright with her family, so at her behest, i led the discussion today about our fine collection of poets. The finalist for 2016 include hutchinson house of lords and commons. Pam, olio way of books. Bernadette mayer, new directions. Robert pinsky at the hospital fsg and monica, gray wolf press. The citation is to hutchinson house of lords and commons. [applause]
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