Unfiltered, unbiased, word from word from the Nations Capital to wherever you are. Where the opinion that matters most is your own, this is what democracy looks like. Cspan, powered by cable. Now library of congress is joined by five featured authors from 2023 National Book festival for a kickoff celebration of this years event. The theme is everyone has a story. Now librarian of Congress Carla Hayden is joined by five featured authors from the 2023 National Book festival for a kickoff celebration of this years event. This years theme is, everyone has a story. Lifebook tv coverage on cspan. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2023] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [indiscernible voices] [applause] [indiscernible] thank you. Thank you. Welcome to the open celebration of the 2023 National Book festival. Now we clap [cheers and applause] the theme of this years festival is, everyone has a story, and this theme is reflected in this years esteemed author lineup that reflects the diversity of voices in our nation and celebrates the storyteller in us all. This is the 23rd year for the National Book festival, and it remains one of the preeminent literary events in the United States. It is central to the librarys mission to expand our reach and connect with all americans. The library of congress is here to share its rich collections of treasures and we inspire and energize the next generation of thinkers, artists, students, public servants, and more to continue to tell the american story and our collective history. As the Largest Library in the world, we have the opportunity to champion reading and literacy in this weekend we are bringing together and acclaimed Diverse Group of authors and illustrators to our Nations Capital to celebrate books and the essential place they had in our lives. We do this for the benefit of tens of thousands of book lovers who come in person and those who participate virtually. Now, i suspect that all of you are book lovers. [laughter] or you would not be here tonight. You know how just a single book can change a life and how books on lock life wonders and how they teach us to live and flourish. And tonight, we are excited to hear from five of our distinguished National Book festival authors, those who write and illustrate books that change our lives both profound and everlasting, and assembled in this auditorium tonight is an extraordinary gathering of talent. But before we begin, we have many to think. First and foremost, the United States congress, the librarys chief benefactor since it was established in 1800 know library in history has enjoyed such longlasting and generous support. However, without private Sector Support there would not be a National Book festival and are most generous supporter is festival cochair mr. David n. Rubinstein. [applause] i have often heard david speak of his belief that books and reading are keys to success in life, and as some of you may know, we share a history at the library, which was davids library growing up in baltimore which i had the honor to lead for more than 20 years. David has never forgotten the seminole role libraries played in his life and demonstrates his or his support of the library of congress and we continue to be most grateful. [applause] we are also so thankful to our sponsors who make the festival possible, including our charter sponsors, the institute of museum and library services. [applause] [indiscernible] [applause] general motors. [applause] the James Madison council. The National Endowment for the arts and the national [distorted audio] i think a lot of them are here. [laughter] and the National Endowment for the United States [indiscernible] and so are our champion sponsors , the costar group and the john center. [applause] and, we have many friends, and Media Partners and exhibitors. [applause] now, the National Book festival is and has been one of the most inspirational free events in the Nations Capital and it is only possible because of you, our sponsors. And it does take a village to put on a festival like this, so i want to acknowledge the more than 1000 volunteers, most especially the Junior League of washington. [cheers and applause] which has supported the festival since 2003 with over 40,000 hours, the equivalent of 2. 4 million of time. Thank you. [cheers and applause] and, hundreds of volunteers from the general public, and of course, the hardworking library of Congress Staff who are key in vital to the success of the festival, so please, thank them and join me in that. [cheers and applause] some now it is my honor to welcome the chair of the James Madison council and the cochair of the 2020 three National Book festival 2023 National Book festival, mr. David rubinstein. [applause] david so, thank you all for coming and thank you carla, for the kind introduction, and i should say as well that carlas mother is here. Thank you very much for coming from baltimore. [applause] so, how many people here have read at least five books in the past year. Ok, how may people have read at least 10 books in the past year. How many people have read at least 20 books. How any people have read at least 30 books in the last year. Oh well. How many people honestly read 50 books . Anybody read 70 books last year . Ok. Anybody read 100 books last year . Ok. [indiscernible] [distorted audio] [indiscernible] so, sadly, 44 of americans did not read a book last year. 44 of American Adults did not read a single book last year. Now, that is not a good thing for our country. Our country is not the leading country in the world and literacy. In fact, we are 150th in the worlds literacy percentage. 150th. Why is that . There are lots of reasons and we cannot describe them all now but it is a sad fact we are not very good and literacy. People who can, choose often not to read books and people who cant read cant do very much about it. 130 million adults in this country cannot read a book to their children. One of the best ways to teach a child how to read is to read to the child yourself, and that is how many children no doubt many of you learn how to read books. 130 million americans cannot do it. 21 of all adults in this country are functionally illiterate, 21 , which means they cannot read past the fourth grade level, so 21 of americans cannot, essentially at all, so what does this mean for our society . Of course it does not help you get a job if you cannot, and it turns out you are going to be very involved in the criminal Justice System if you cant read. 85 of people in the juvenile delinquency system in this country are functionally illiterate, which means they cannot read past the fourth grade level. Two thirds of the people in the federal prison system are functioning illiterate, so obviously if you are functionally illiterate you probably resort to things that are not great things for our society and as a result often wind up in the juvenile delinquency system or federal prison system, so we have to do much more about this. In notebook festival will solve all these problems im up at National Book festival is designed to make people realize that we in washington dc and representing all of the country believe that it is orton to have a festival where the leading authors in the country, to meet with children, to autograph their books, to read from their books on to explain the importance of reading. It is not called the National Tweet festival or National Memo festival. Its called the National Book festival. Why is that . Books have the way of focusing the way a tweet doesnt, or maybe it is x now, i dont know. [laughter] books of the way of focusing the brain because you have to spend time and be concentrating for some time to read a book and that really helps the brain evolve, and really, all civilization has evolved from reading not just tweets, but books so what we are trying to do at the National Book festival is to say that people come here. It is for free. Come here and meet the great authors and learned more about books and bring your children so they can see how important it is to adults to have other people, and also we want people to come here to because we want people to appreciate the importance of reading. We will not solve the illiteracy problem in this country overnight and we will not solve the other problem which is you can, but you choose not to but we can take a step forward and hopefully people will come here and go back to their home towns, go back to their communities in the Washington Area and say, i was at the National Book festival and i learned something about reading and now i really want to do more to help my child learn how to read better and to read better and more myself, so i want to thank all the sponsors. I want to thank the authors. And i also want to thank laura bush. Those of you who heard the story a moment ago [applause] um, as you all know, uh, we are getting ready to celebrate the 250th anniversary of this country. You would be under a rock if you did not know we work celebrating the 250th anniversary because were celebrating it already, but were not celebrating the 250th anniversary of the National Book festival. Why is that . We did not have a National Book festival for a long time. When laura bush, a librarian, came to washington right before the inauguration, she met with carlas predecessor and a reception the night before the inauguration she said to jim billington, well, we have a textbook festival and you have a book thats when washington and he quickly said, nope, but we will him and we did. So on the mall, right afterwards with that spring i believe it was, they set up the first National Book festival on the mall. Number . . It was a little dusty from time to time and sometimes it rained from time to time but that actually was the first effort of the United States government really to do something along the lines of having a book festival, and so, over the years, the way the world work sometimes his things happened by happenstance and you dont think it is going to be good but it turns out it is actually better, so for a while, the National Park service said, you guys, its nice you are reading books encouraging people to read but youre hurting the grass. [laughter] what . Yes, the grass cant grow with the book has appeared yeah, but people can read better. But yeah, the grass will not grow, so we kind of got kicked off the mall for a while and we went to the Convention Center, which was supposed to be temporary as the grass grew back. [laughter] but ultimately we decided it was better at the Convention Center, so all of you who have been at the mall and all of you have been at the Convention Center know that its better the Convention Center, food, the restrooms are better, so how many people would prefer to stay there, most people . Ok. So that is what we would do tomorrow and i hope all of you will have an enjoyable time and i just want to echo what i said earlier. I think all of you for participating. Hopefully you will take the word back about with the book festival is all about and encourage more people to learn how to read books. And let me thank carla hayden because she has been an indefatigable authors supporting the National Book festival. Its not a given requirement that the library of congress has to support the book festival but she has taken this on and made an incredible book festival, the biggest in the nine states, and i want to thank you carla doing that. The United States, and i want to thank you carla for doing that. [applause] ok. Ok. Thank you very much, now we will have our authors is that right . Ok. Ok . Thank you very much. [applause] please welcome bestselling young adult writer, angelyn [applause] hello, everyone, i am angela on, bear cram, and from the tribe of chippewa indians. I am glad for this honor to speak in these hallowed halls. Everyone has a story. I am always fascinated by the stories behind the stories and my story, i am a debut, i was a debut author at 55, and, yeah. [applause] thank you. The origin story for my story, i was 18 and a senior in high school and my best friend went to a Different School nearby and she told me about a new boy senior year in our classes she thought i might like. I was intrigued and dateless, so yes, i asked about him, and it turned out that he did not play sports, and he hung out with the really hardcore stoners we called them so i never met him, and a month before graduation she said you would never believe it, there was a huge drug bust and it turned out the new boy was an undercover cop. Well, this was a few years before the original 21 jump street. [laughter] and so, i could not believe it. My mind was blown about the idea of a young looking Law Enforcement officer posing as a high school senior, and i was raised on soap operas and mysteries, and so i immediately thought, what if we would have met and what if we would have liked each other, or what if he needed my help, and then the spark that the idea that has stayed with me for 37 years was, why would some undercover drug investigation need the help of an ordinary 18yearold girl. Well, by the time i was 44, i had figured out, i had worked out the puzzle pieces that held the story might happen. What if it was a federal drug investigation onto reservation, and what if this young woman was excellent in chemistry, what if she knew traditional medicines, new her culture and language, and was connected to everybody and everything around her . She actually would be the ideal confidential informant for an fbi investigation. [laughter] well, on my reservation, sometimes the fbi and other federal agencies are not this is serve the good guys so i had to create some plausible ideas of why she would participate, even reluctantly. I decided at age 44 that i could write the worlds worst first draft and live with that failure easier than the regret of never even trying, and so it took 10 years to write a version that i thought was Strong Enough to give me an agent. It got me an agent within two weeks. Two weeks after we went out on submission, there was a 12bidder auction and i sold the u. S. Publishing rights and i am now published in 22 other countries. [applause] but wait, there is more. [laughter] two weeks after the book auction, i sold the film rights to the obamas Higher Ground productions, so, fire keepers daughter, my indigenous nancy drew meets 21 jump street will be coming to netflix at some point. [cheers and applause] i had a mantra while i was writing and it guides my storytelling, that i write to preserve my culture and i edit to protect it. We Indigenous People have always been storytellers but not always the ones getting the book deals. Stories about us, but not by us are more likely to perpetuate stereotypes and in Accurate Information that not only harms native children and teenagers but all students who want, who need to learn about native americans. Everyone has a story, but for too long, our stories, our indigenous knowledge was treated as yet one more resource to be extracted and exploited, just like land, water, timber, and mineral rights. Our stories were mined for trauma without context or nuance and without sharing our strengths and joy. Everyone has a story, lets support indigenous voices telling our stories. [speaking indigenous language] [applause] please welcome new york staff writer, finders for the National Book award, and winter of the Edgar Allan Poe award. [laughter] david i feel like that is how it will all end one day. It is so great to be here amongst such great authors and to be with you over the book festival. I wanted to tell you a quick somewhat eccentric story behind the story but i think it reveals something fundamental about the nature of writing nonfiction and discerning the truth, and it happened in 2004 when i was newly hired as a writer at the new yorker magazine and i was behind on my Contract Party to produce a certain number of stories. As most people know, i am very slow, and i was frantically fearing i might lose this coveted job and i was calling everybody for story ideas. I called a friend who said, well, why dont you look for the giant squid. That would make some news, and my only image becton of a giant squid was from 20,000 leagues under the seat, and i thought it was a myth, but after i got off the phone, i looked it up and sure enough it is a real creature with eyes the size of the human head, tentacles that can stretch as long as a school bus, but no scientist becton had ever seen one alive. These dead ca