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
Hi kathie. So nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. I enjoyed your book. Thank you. I would like to start this interview by talking a little bit about you. I also would like the audience to hear the story which honestly which really offended me. Which is in your introduction. You got a note from a professor claiming he would never be a political scientist. Can you say little bit about that . Speech i put that in the book because when i was in college i struggled with what i wanted to major in. I wanted about going into science, humanities or social science. And i finally decided on social science because i found those questions much more interesting comment engaging in urgent for me. My First Political science course we read all of the great political philosophers from plato on up. They were all asking the question, what is justice . What is Good Government . How can you organize a government and organize society to make life better for people. Particularly to make justice. So, i end
This book the anatomy of blackness, sites of slavery in the age of the leather. And then came last year the much diderot and the art of thinking freely which is now in paperback and im holding it up. Its a beautiful cover. Andrew, how did you go from, im curious about the through lines of the three books. How did it start with the first book which is about an intellectual history of monstrosity in literature and ideas which have a lot to do with bitter row, to what the enlightenment figures thought about race and onto the third book diderot and the art of thinking freely . First, thanks, jim pick a truly great to be here today. I have always been attracted to which my call intellectual history, tracked down an idea over time, both of the affects people and the people are affected by the idea. So very quickly about this first book, how to monstrosity was incredibly important for people of the 17th and 18th century because it was this hotly contested topic. Was god responsible for human
Interviewing senator mack in 1982 cermak left a successful banking career to the senate where he served three terms in the u. S. Senate. He then served two terms before reelection so with that i will hand it over keep an eye on your chat feature. Thank you very much it is great to have this conversation with a man i admire so much in the New York Times today had an article about independent bookstores that i think is worth mentioning because i am a kindle guy but every time i read a book i by ten to send to friends its important to focus on the fact that as a nation we need to be literate and supporting authors across the spectrum. Im a big fan of yours and a big supporter i read it on the Amazon Kindle and if you have a chance to do it i would suggest you do that the independent bookstore especially during the pandemic so theres enough for my announcement. There are four independent bookstores participating. Thats why i brought it up. [laughter] we should name who they are the midtown
Welcome. My name is Vivian Schiller and im the director of aspen digital. Were blunt glad you could be with us today. The New York Times bestseller list can often seem to be a veneer of the National Psyche and this year it seems to reflect a nation going through an awakening on matters of race. Books written by people of color and about matters of race and racism have filled those lists, both fiction and nonfiction. Thats the good news. Sadly the Publishing Industry does not necessarily always reflect that reality. The recent twitter protest hashtag publishing pay me exposed the disparity in the industry between black and nonblack authors. There are few people of color who serve as publishing staff or literary agents and even fewer who operate at decisionmaking levels and for those who are published, sometimes the marketing exposure can be sub optimal. This year of National Reckoning on racism were going to take a look at the industry, the book Publishing Industry and whether it can br