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
Bestselling author Janice Kaplan and her fascinating book the genius of women from overlooked to changing the world. She will be in conversation with the ceo of central ohio and this will be on eliminating evening. I want to thank our venue partner and our Wonderful Community partners, all these organizations that helped us get the word out. I will introduce janice in a moment but let me ask you to silence your phones or any other noisemakers you have with you tonight so that we can hear everything. I hope many of you have visited, we are right down the street a few blocks down and we invite any of you who have not been there before to browse. We have been open for three years and hosted 300 book related events. [applause] besides being an independent bookstore for central ohio our mission is to connect the community with talented authors. That is what we are doing tonight. You received the program, i want to give a shout out to three Upcoming Events can we produce eight events every m
Its a big night for the National Book foundation, for literature, culture, the big night for all of us. Whenever i have the opportunity to stand in front of people i always mention my mothers name, irma jean christin. She is the reason i like to say about my mother i am th imed amm because she is the woman she is or was. My mother was my first teacher. My mother graduated from college the age of 17 the first person i17 in the firstperson in her fo college for me to be a wellknown literary advocate in this nation, a place where only a few generations ago it would have been illegal for me to read is no small thing. [applause] literature is the birthright of every single one of us if you can read in at least one language you are in my definition free. That is to say no one can pull the wool over your eyes are give you what they want to call alternative facts and convince you what you know to be true is in fact not true at all. If you can read at least one language, you have the wherewitha
We are going to have a great night tonight. We are honoring literary liens, emma white will be honored, a big night for the Massive National Book Foundation for literature, culture, a big night for all of us. When i have the ability to stand in front of people i mention my mothers name jean christian. She is the reason i like to say about my mother i am the man that i am because she is the woman sheis or was. My mother was my first teacher. My mother graduated from college at the age of 17, the first person in her family to go to college. For me to be a wellknown literary advocate in this nation, a place where only a scant few generations ago it would have been illegal for me to read is no small thing. [applause] literature is the birthrightof every single one of us, no exception and if you can read in at least one language youare in my definition free. That is to say , no one can pull the wall over your eyes. No one can give you a set of what they want to call alternative facts and co
First fiction. It was also a finalist for the 2020 National Book award in the fiction category. So welcome deesha. Thanks for joining us. We also have steven sparks whos the cone coowner of point reyes books out in california. Hes worked at green apple books and the dalke archive and he is on the boards of dorothy a publishing project open letter books and the center for the art of translation. Thank you stephen for joining us. And last we have john shear whos the director of the university of North Carolina, press it is the oldest Scholarly Publishing house in the south. I am as a bookseller. Im compelled to say as well that john is a former bookseller at olsons in washington dc. Oh, im sorry, washington. Not dc. So, thank you everyone. I am going to start out with a question for you d shop. You have as i said had an incredibly successful university, press book. So what brought you to West Virginia up . Why did you just what pulled you in that direction instead of looking forward or d