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
Acceptance speech in new york city. Good evening. Thank you stephen in the book critics circle for inviting me for Toni Morrison for the Lifetime Achievement award although she certainly doesnt need an introduction with celebratory tributes to the great novelist of their time. You have to rattle off her accomplishments to you tonight by and large you are deeply familiar and then to recognize the rising star in 1977 and that is from her book song of solomon. You dont need me to remind you hear the honorees and those other works. And i assume you dont want me to whittle away moments at the podium with the recitation of previous awards although it is tempting the 1988 Pulitzer Prize National Humanities metal and 2000 and the honorary doctorate from oxford among many others with the president ial medal of freedom. So literarily evil halle is heavily weighted in the favor and then has the crime see front and center with that poetic sensibility and the influence on discourse and the vernacul
Rebecca roanhorse. So, we are not going to take audience questions but feel free to chat amongst yourself in the chat feature and let us know where youre viewing from. Well re recording the event so folks who couldnt join us live can watch this later on and ill give you a quick rundown of the format. Were going to give each author seven to mine minutes to talk about anywhere upcoming books and then we joy will lead a chat of the group. So without further adieu ill pass things over to zerina and well take it away. Zerina maxwell the msnbc political analyst, commentator, speaker and writer the and the senior director of progressive programming for pierus xm cohost of signal boost. Take it away. Im so excited to be here this evening. I know so many of us are struggling through our individual circumstances during this quarantine, and maybe were thinking and wondering what we can do in this particular moment to make the world around us just a little bit different and a lot better. So, i can
Im becka oliver, executive director of the rightist books of texas where the largest literary or its organization in texas, we exist to support writers at every stage of their writing career and one of the things we love to do is have the opportunity to talk to published authors about their most recent books but also to dig in a little more than i think we get to as we like it book events with a craft talk, learning a bit more about what went into creating the book and especially for the book we are talking about today, american sherlock murder, forensics, and the birth of american csi. So many interesting things kate can share that would be applicable to any writer who happens to be here. Who here is a writer . Who here writes but didnt raise their hand . There are always a few of you. We are going to make sure we get some conversation as well. I just want to say quickly before we start, a big thank you to book people. We are lucky to live here in austin and have a lot of really wonde
Welcome to kate dawsons become event. Im becka oliver, we exist to support writers at ever stage of their writing career, and one of othings we love to do is have the opportunity to talk to published authors about their most recent books but also to dig in at bit more than i think we get to as often as we would like at book events with a craft talk so learning more but what craft went into creating the book, and i think especially for the book were talking about today american sherlock, so many some thing that kate can share that i think would be applicable any writer who happens to be here. Who here is a write center who here righted but didnt raise their hand. There are always a few of you. So were going to make sure that we get to some craft conversation as well, but i just want to say really quickly before we start a big thank you to book people. We are so lucky to live near austin and have a lot of wonderful Literary Community and one of the big hugs is this become store so thank