dove rita dove. so first is the 2023 literary an award for outstanding service to the american literary community, which is given to recognize the honorees dedication to expand in the audience for books and for reading. past recipients include. lawrence ferlinghetti, dr. maya angelou and. most recently. tracy dee hall, former executive director of the american library association. tonight's recipient is a life long bookseller who has paved a path forward for readers and globally. and here to present the award to paul yamazaki is 2011 literary and recipient himself mitchell kaplan native of miami beach, florida. mitchell is owner of the storied books and books the village, the venerated establishment in miami, and the co-founder of the miami book fair y'all. it gives me great, good pleasure to welcome to stage mr. mitchell kaplan. wow. wow. i want to thank oprah and lavar for those remarkable opening comments and. i'm also here to thank who's a friend who's a friend to all of us in this and is doing a

thank you. >> [ applause ] [ music ] >> rita dove! rita dove! i did not expect to come here id and cry in front of people, but there you go. thank you so much, miss dove. you know, she said something really interesting about art and i believe that artistic expression is in fact love, artistic expression is love in action. and so all of you in this room who have any connection to art and artistic endeavor. and for me, the written word is at the highest rung of, of art itself. god bless. god bless. ladies and gentlemen, let's please welcome the chairman of the board of the national book foundation, the very suave and debonair david steinberger. the national book. i want to welcome you to the 74th national book. as many of you >> thank you, levar. good evening, everyone on behalf of the board of directors of the national book foundation, i want to welcome you to the 74th national book awards. as many of you know, it's not the board that actually picks the finalists or the winners of the national book awards, that's up to independent judges, differe

dove. >> rita dove! rita dove! >> i did not expect to come here and cry, but there you go.nk you , rita dove. she said something really interesting, it is in fact, love. artistic expression is love in action. so, all of you in this room who have any connection to our, the written word. god bless. ladies and gentlemen, the board of the national book foundation. david steinberger. >> thank you . on behalf of the board of the directors and the national book foundation, we want to welcome you. as many of you know, that's up to independent judges but we do get to vote on the lifetime achievement awards. a great poet and a great bookseller. i am filled with gratitude not only for this year's lifetime, for all poets and booksellers and librarians, and most especially for all readers. thank you, all of you. for caring about our mission with the national book foundation. those of you who have been here before, when i can recite this, right? we've got a great mission. to expand audience, that is why we are here, today. now, i don't have to tell you that it's a challenging time in the