Much like the leader in Residence Program seeks to bring script to the world and the world to scrap by finding the intersection between the intersection and scholarship in society and culture. Presenters often linked to academic curricula and linked to issues that are vital to faculty, race, literature, and the arts. Programs provide a forum for Community Engagement and the exchange of ideas beyond the classroom and nurture the environment for inquiry ideas and intellectual exchange. While shes been on campus for the last few days, lisa has been meeting with students and faculty and sharing her perspective of the executive director of the National Book foundation and the former editor of the magaze. Im re that her conversation with argus script community will inform tonight discussion. I want to tell you that she tweeted today that claremont has been an exceedingly Pleasant Place [joining her on stage is poet, robin lewis was voyage of the voyage won the National Book award in 2015. She has taught at hunter and Hampshire College and a provost fellow in poetry and visual studies at the university of southern california. Joining them is Rachel Kushner who was novel the flamethrowers from cuba were both finalists for the National Book award. Her fiction has a peer to note harbor in paris review. She was the recipient of the 2015 award of arts and letters. Finally, moderating the session tonight is carolyn kellogg. Carolyn is the book editor for the Los Angeles Times and the Vice President of the board of National Book critics circle. If you are a twitter fan you will enjoy your statement i can make a mean martini at and skateboard but not at the same time. [laughter] i know tonight will be an opportunity to reflect on each of these amazing women think about leadership and the responsibility of art, artists, editors and art administered as to their committees. Please welcome them. [applause] good evening. Lisa i would like to start with you. You have said that you are in a basket four books. What does that mean. Ive never lled myself that but when i started about a year ago immediately there was a lot of visibility around the job and the fact that i was black, that that i was woman, that i was younger than my predecessor had been when they took the job. I think that it was energizing for everyone to sort of see that there was an opening up and change in the National Book foundation. I think that because there was so much energy it felt like there was a Good Opportunity to use the platform that we were receiving. To change the conversation about books. What we do, the primary function of the National Book foundation is present the National Book award. Its about excellence, excellence, the best books that are published in america. Thats not about all books, its about a specific specific set of books but in order to get people to care about that night in the middle of november about the 20 bucks that we honor in the four books that when, there has to be a strong and robust and excited generation or population of people who care about books at large. So we have to start by saying youre invited. Books are amazing and i think that because i love books and their huge part of my life, and always have been, im just blown away by every author that i get to spend time with in this role trying to share some of that enthusiasm remind people that im not special but i dislike books. We can all be that person and that it makes my life better and it will make other peoples lives better, happier, harder and bigger. It was a Good Opportunity to say come join me. That turns into ambassador for books. I just believe in them. I dont think theyre dying. I think its actually a wonderful thriving world full of writers and readers and booksellers and librarians and were doing just fine. I think saying that. Can you give me a sense its february, what does your look like year look like so far ive been traveling around a lot and one of the things is that where the National Book foundation. Early on i made a jokes that were not the baseball foundation. It means we actually have to show up in mississippi or anyplace that readers are. Theres been a lot of travel. The beginning of the year is when i try to convince a lot of very fancy writers too, for very little money and almost no thanks, to read hundreds of books and decide what the National Book award is. Im picking judges. Harold goggin braum who is my predecessor called me the other day and asked said this is why im a tough person and people look at me and tell me hell know when i asked them to be a judge for the National Book award. [laughter] im not done yet. I still have four or five spots to go. Thats what is happening now. Im also thinking about the word and we also do other stuff besides the National Book award. We Just Announced a program were going to be giving away, thanks to very several large publishers, 300,000 books. Were getting ready to make a project happen and getting ready for the year. Theres all kind of buildup. Our audit thats my favorite part, every year nonprofits get audited. Someone comes to their office and we pay them a lot of money to harass us for a week. They ask for tiny pieces of paper that were surely lost and thats been a part of my 2017. [laughter] lets move on toore fun things for a second. Robin and rachel could you tell me what its like being named a finalist for the National Book award is mark. But you won two separate times. Can we celebrate our finalist just as much we do our winners my nine yearold is very unimpressed. He just thanks i lost twice. [laughter] this is a lucky thing. There are a lot of great books that come out every year. I thought it was neat to be in this sudden, Small Community with four other writers. The first time i read all their books and felt close to them when we got close to where the event i felt like whatever happens this is an unusual moment for me to get this kind of attention and be in a circle with these other writers going through this thing together and then the second time i was nominated i was really happy about it. Partly, because because i knew already what it was like. I knew the emphasis was not going to be on whether i won this thing or not but just the luck and good fortune to go and have this experience. I was sitting at the they put you at a table with your publisher and then the announce the winner and the bigwigs of the Publishing Company that i dont know so its very alien to me but for them it would be important if i won because they can sell a lot of books. When the announce the winner desmet now im forgetting, im sorry. Im forgetting who one when i was nominated instead of the frame store. I feel like i should know this. But i dont. Hes a really great writer. It was before lisas time. Yes, im still memorizing all of the finalists. I was so happier for him that everyone is looking at me and asking if somethings wrong with me. Did she have a lobotomy smart i was very happy. I was. It wasnt about winning the thing, it was about going through this prerarefied experience and i got got to work twice with harold organ braum who preceded lisa in the job and as i said to her backstage, clearly wanted her to flourish and wants the National Book foundation to grow in exactly the kind of ways that it needs to and maybe is ready to, as well. He is the guy who cares deeply about literature, translated poetry and was always ready to have a deep very mindful conversation about literature no matter where you were. To have those meaningful interactions with people is wonderful. What was the question again chris mark. Since we know a little bit about what the process is, what is it like when you won. In that moment, it was surreal. I love that you just talked about the community that gets formed within the finalist. I was madly in love with everyone that was nominated. Terrance hayes, Patrick Patrick phillips, ross gaye are all friends of mine and even the people in the long list were friends of mine. We were ecstatic. It is nouns in september all the way through to the awards we were just partying on facebook, twitter, i love you, i love you too, im happy, it happy, it was weird. We were being crazy. My book was my debut so theyd do in poetry that he debne. The last time s wasnt winning. I was just happy to be there. I was happy for all my friends. We were just having a big laugh fest. When they call my name also, tim was a judge and ive never met him but everyone thought i knew tim because i iran up and hugged him so hard. I was saying this is videotaped and i couldnt say what i wanted to. I was holding him and screaming him what the in his ear over and over again but so, those are sweet anecdotes but truly im very much taken by it. Shaken in the best possible way. I understand what it means historically. I have another life as a scholar in the kind of historical moment desmet i was born in compton. To people who came to los angeles for the great migration from new orleans. There is a poem in my book that there was no library in my town when we grew up. It was a book desert. Lisa is doing this amazing project with book desert. I loved books and thank god my family were the kind of parents who would within my means you can have anything you want and i wanted books. I always wanted a book and i read a book a day for years. Wanda coleman, Octavia Butler all ose people who are los angeles writers, la was a book desert. In many ways, in some places it still is. Winning for me was like winning for those people. Thats what it felt like. Before that i was just deeply honored and i still am. I feel incredible amount of love and generosity, and i just want to be of service. Can i say one more thing chris mark the question i wanted to answer was the thing that was most shocking to me though and ive been on tour for about a year and a half is how many people are working behind the scenes for love of literature. I had no idea because my first book, right. If i had gone through this i would have. To find out that there are how many people working as editors, publishers, copy editors, fact checkers, just whatever, tens of thousands of them. They blow my mind. I dont even care about writing that much. I do it because i have to, im weird that way. I much more impressed with what is going on behind the scenes in terms of whos getting books out into the world than the actual writing because all that interesting but thats been profound and real life how good people are. You are sharing something backstage and i dont know if you want to talk about that smart. What was it . About needing some big publishing organization. Yeah, the diversity in the publishing. They were discussing how to increase diversity. There are a lot of people working on behalf of literature to talk to tie together what youre talking about. To expand the audience for ledger and making sure were stronger and bigger. To back up stay with me, someone was complaining to me that awards keep focusing on the same book and they were focusing on ashley book everybodys reviewing it, everyone is talking about it, whats whats the. Of all this attention on one book. How many copies of the underground railroad have sold . They didnt know. I dont know the number desmet. It was nowhere near 1 million bucks. There are 368 million americans. We need more people, we need more advocates. When you look at the publishing houses and the fact that theyre not really while there are tens of thousands of people working on behalf of literature, what if we had black and brown folks, lb gt q folks, more folks rural fark invited into that. So that we could do more for places. Weve done a lot with a relatively small amount of passionate advocates and writers. If we could build that network, we would really change the way that reading happens in america. That starts with inclusivity at the publishing houses. We focus on the writer and the writer doesnt seem exciting. But writers are everything. Without them we wouldnt have the books. I dont know that change starts with saying two young people, you should write more. It starts with you should be an editor, layers from all different backgrounds and nurture these writers and you to be a safe harbor at home for all different kinds of writers. When there are a net like that that more people are drawn to being writers. That will change the fabric of what all of it looks like. May i jump in and say to that end and i keep arguing, suggesting that when i been on tour for speaking up about diversity and one other way that we dont speak of enough is geographically. Im so grateful that youre here on the west coast. So grateful for this program. Thank you for all of you who put it together. Theres a way that california and the west coast and particularly often the work is set on the west coast. The work is particular to the west coast or different communities within the west coast. The work gets left over quite a bit. It means so much to me, im on a mission right now to make the Publishing Industry more aware of where the work on the west coast. That diversity is important to me to. Im not going to name the publication but there was a magazine from new york that was out in la recently and i went to a party that they threw in one of the publishers spoke to spoke to the audience as if writers that live in la are all screenwriters and work in the film industry. I dont know anyone who works in the film industry. I thought deep into my acquaintance layer of my reality, i could come up with a name or two but nobody anywhere near the center of my desk and they gave this talk that like you guys out here and every day since then i do this neurotic thing where i open this draft of an email that i have, that im writing to the editor of the magazine with statistics like guess what, 40 come from the port of la. Guess what chris mark we are the largest Manufacturing Center in the United States. Guess what . 20 million live in the metropolitan area of los angeles and moreover, we have the highest poverty rate of any big city in america. There are people all over the world here and its fascinatingly a noble place, very complicated economy and im so mad about it. I wrote this draft and then i just save it in the draft. [laughter] there something in my anger about it. Im not trying to be selfrighteous or moral but there something in my anger that may be symptomatic of the misunderstanding that i see in a broader sense in terms of publishing who is American People are and where the left. Im dedicated to living in los angeles because i think that desmet i think there are the brutalities speak to me. Thats contrasted with the fantasy of it by people in new york. Lisa is not among them who think that la is just kind of shallow, glamorous, wealthy White Hollywood types. Thats all i have to say about that. Thats extraordinarily arrogant. When we think about the foundation we think about how do you thats where im in new york. I love new york. Everybody is allowed to love home. But how do you recognize support, uplift and acknowledge literary communities around the country. To make sure the stories of reality of what is happening in those given places is actually told. I think we think about the future of the foundation and part of that is how do we augment the work that all these literary communities are doing. How do we make sure that they have visibility how do we make sure that they have access. I go to libraries all the time desmet i was in i have this gorgeous library and i have all this resources why can i get these authors to come here. How do you encourage National Book award that dont live in the west coast to come to the library and talk to the eager and Wonderful Community that they are to buy their books. And to read their works. I think thats a lot of new york writers and then theres arrogance they are and we just have to think about how these huge this country is and just like i look at the work that i can do in my budget is us but if i raise money and tell a different story than i can be this much bigger and do work. Its the same with readership. If you assume a bigger audience you are finding more readers. A friend of mine was just scheduling her to her and shes going to kansas city into someplace in texas that wasnt often. [laughter] and all these places. Its really cool. Wow, i just said yes when they asked me. All those people are going to buy all those books and those bookstore owners that are doing these events with you are going to be so excited that youre showing up that theyre going to promote the hell out of your event and youll have tons of sell a lot of books and those people will be grateful that you showed up. People want to connect. They want to connect all over the country. They want to connect in la and appalachia and to new jersey and i never met a single author. Its just important to the work and stop being so snobby. We need to be taught to, homebase and thats a dumb way to frame it because it doesnt make sense. It doesnt make good Financial Sense for an artist or an organization or a for a publisher. Or a president. Sorry im not going there yet. I want to ask you about book deserts and this project that you mentioned. I was so excited when i saw this. This is the 300,000 books. When do we get libraries and Public Housing . How do we make this happen . Weve been talking free books. Weve been talking a lot about how do we build new audiences, and how do we reach new readers or potential readers that have not been reached out to. I dont do literacy work. The foundation does not do literacy work. We dont how to teach kids how to read. What we can teach kids is how exciting books are and how fun it is. I got a phone call in the summer from this day of action called read where you are.