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>> and saying that blacks were in revolt. and the next morning between 600 and 1,000 men, white men, pour into phillips county to begin shooting down blacks. >> and on american history tv on c-span3, sunday at 5:00 pm, former student bruce lindsey on integration and north little rock high school. >> as if they know what's going to happen.

we don't know what's going to happen. we don't realize what's going to happen. because the crowd is with us. the momentum is with us. and they are pushing us up the steps. >> she's stories and other content on c-span2 and 3. >> and now booktv presents the 2012 national book critic circle awards from the new school in new york city. the awards are presented annually by the nation's critics in six categories, nonfiction, autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, and poetry. this year's award ceremony also includes the presentation of the ivan sandroff award for lifetime achievement to robert silvers editor of the new york books. this is just over an hour. >> so good evening, i'm director of the new writing school program. it's my pleasure to welcome you

on the occasion of the award ceremony of the national book critic circle awards. we want to welcome everybody back who attended last night's powerful evening of readings by the nominated writers. >> those of you who are here will readily admit that you experiences something stylish, wonders are and rare. we'll want to welcome other critics and reviewers who come from new york and magazines from all across the country. the graduate writing program cosponsored with nbcc. they are the only literary honors that are bestowed by practicing critics and reviewers. last night, eric banks the president of the nbcc reminded that the very first recipients of the national book critic circle awards including eldoctore, ew lewis and john

ashbury so to honor that first nbcc awards ceremony and another one tonight i thought i'd read a short bit in poetry, a brief passage from the title poem of john ash bury portrait in a convict's mirror. on the surface of the there seems no special reason that that light should be focused by love or why the city falling with its beautiful suburbs in space always less clear less defined should read as the support of its progress. the easel upon which the drama unfolded to its own satisfaction and to the end of our dreaming as we had never dreamed it would end. in worn daylight with the painted promise showing through as a gauge, a bond. this nondescript never to be defined daytime is the secret of

where it takes place. and we can no longer return to the various conflicting statements gathered, lapses of memory of the principal witnesses. all we know is that we were a little earlier that today has that lapdary todayness casting twig shadows. no previous day would have been like this. i used to think they were all alike. that the present always looked the same to everybody. but this confusion drains away as one is always cresting into one's presence. so that was the first nbcc and now to keep the present cresting as ashbury said please join me in welcoming the president of national book circle eric banks. [applause] >> he deserves that applause but

let me say that eric banks is former editor of art forum and he launched as book forum as he served as editor-in-chief until 2008. he has appeared in several magazines, periodicals, newspapers including the "new york times," the "new york times" book review, the financial times and the chronicle of higher education and now eric banks. [applause] >> i'm president of the nbcc and it is my pleasure to join you in honoring the 30 authors whom we celebrate tonight for their outstanding work in six categories. fiction, nonfiction, biography, poetry, autobiography and criticism. we're fortunate to have representatives on the stage this evening most exemplary works published in the past year. i'd like to extend our gratitude to all the authors who have come to join us tonight.

and to say a special thank you to the representatives of our two finalists who are no longer with us manning maribold and allen willis. we're all excited to have you with us here. the national book critic awards were founded in 1974 at a conversation that took place in a hotel by a group of critics who wanted to establish a set of awards given by critics themselves. unlike other national literary awards there would be no books nominated by publishing houses, they would not be funded by publishers either. instead it would be the critics themselves who would nominate and judge the titles they thought most worthy. as robert poli, to noted a few minutes ago they did a fantastic job honored with the processes el's rag time john henry a convict's mirror, rw willis's a biography. in the 37 years since those

first awards the nbcc has grown to include some 600 member critics and editors of book reviews from across the country and the number of judging categories has expanded from 4 to 6. we also have added two honors to show our appreciation of individual critics and distinguished institutions. each was noted as influence and honoring by the nbcc for their work and the lifetime achievement of worked is known for the body of work for our literary and critical culture. the various activities, panels and events that the nbcc sponsors has grown far beyond what the original time might have had in might but we want to thank the great work of our forebears of the brilliant titles published each your. as expressed but in our simple but succinct statement it's to honor outstanding writing and foster a national conversation

about reading, criticism and literature. tonight is a substantiation of that year by year mission. before the phrase diy entered our lexicon, the nbcc was already a bootstrap organization that drew upon the volunteer services of so many in the literary community not least today the critics who make up our 25-member board and have spent the last 12 minutes giving their time in reading and discussing the hundreds of titles each year and finally organizing our two days of ceremonies. can i ask all the nbcc directors please to stand now and be recognized for your effort. [applause] >> we also wouldn't be able to put such public free of charge events together without the help of so many other people. i'd like to thank a particular tonight robert polito and the

new school university for their generosity and their tremendous hospitality. i'd also like to extend a thank you to pate and our volunteer assistants and say a special word of thanks to our tireless web manager/tech genius/miracle driver david barno who i pointed out last night and i'll point out last night mastered every single task asked of him all the way down to driving and serving lemons and lyme's and picking up an extra vodka for tonight's benefit reception. i also want to extend a very special thank you to two public list -- publicist geniuses who stepped up. [applause] >> these two helped us to spread the word about our 30 great books that we honor tonight in ways that we only used to dream about. so i thank you lauren and sarah.

tonight's of the award was a yearlong set of discussions. we reached our decision only about an hour ago and a block away in the same space where we convened throughout the afternoon our benefit reception will take place immediately after the awards. it's at the lang center on the second floor. we invite you to toast all the finalists for this year's awards right after the completion of tonight's events. tickets for the reception can be purchased at the door for 50 which is. i hate to mention the price. we always do everything we can to make nbcc events open and to the public. this is one event of the year where we ask you to chip in but at $50 in this town it's a steal. and we hope you will join us to help support the national book critic circle. additionally, i would like to point out that all of our books are available for purchase outside the door. tonight's finalist run the gambit from poets to biographers

novelists to critics. they represent public houses as random august, the university of chicago press and it's scrappy and shoestring, lookout books. they include a first book about the literary ghosts that is harlem. a first novel about a psychiatric resident in the streets of new york and brussels and a collection of short stories by a master of the forum who's received related appreciation. their topics include karl marx from obbers to world war i to guns 'n' roses and mtv's the real world. and without further ado, i'm pillows to introduce the chair of our committee, carolyn kellogg to present the excellence for viewing. thank you for joining us. [applause] >> there's a notable citation

for reviewing is a mouthful. it's a awarded each year to an nbcc member who has proved their mettle for the call of duty. i would like to congratulate our four finalists and apologize if i mispronounce any members. william, ruth, garth and catherine. they rose to the top of a very crowded field. we received more entries this year than ever before. but one -- our winner stood out from the west with a sense of emotional urgency and intellectual clarity, please congratulate catherine schultz for winning the citation for excellence in reviewing. [applause]

is >> carolyn, thank you, that's lovely and sutink at the same time which at the same time is the same time. i would like to thank the nbcc as well. i heard the news about the -- about 72 hours after i accepted my first real job as a book critic which as you can imagine intensified my feeling that i just don't so much deserve this award as need to go out and earn it but in either event i'm incredibly grateful and really honored to be here tonight. my great aunt, ruth kaufman died this past year at 83 years of age after many, many years as a librarian and a lifetime as a truly formidable reader long before i got involved in the book business, she was pretty much review of the by line of every reviewer. it happens who knew?

and if you grew up related to ruth, you grew up with the frequent exposure to her favorite -- i guess you could say etiquette tips. she would tell us if you find yourself at a dinner party or any kind of social engagement and you don't know anyone what to say and you feel kind of awkward and nervous you should just turn to the person nearest to you and say, so have you read any good books recently. i'm not very good with faces but it does seem to me that some of the people nearest to me include jeff dyer and many, many others which points to a small flaw in my great aunt's advice. i'm very nervous at the moment but the whole reason that i'm nervous that, of course, everyone in this room has read a good book recently.

[laughter] >> many of you, in fact, have written extremely good books and some of you, my fellow finalists, for this honor have not only read good books but have gone to write with incredible insight and grace very lovely reviews of those books that are literary works in their own right. i honestly have no idea why i'm standing up tonight instead of you. but i do know that your work is where i turn when i myself am stuck and said inspiration and, again, i'm incredibly honored to be in your company. and this is the moment when i'm supposed to say something cogent about literature and criticism to an audience that's terrifyingly literary but not terrifyingly critical. i learned late last night if we're going to be totally honest about it i could dodge that mandate and grossly exceeding my

word count by just keeping this extremely sort. my thoughts on whether serious literature has a future and whether criticism remains relevant are yes and yes. and the only thing i really actually want to say about reviewing some of it goes back to my great aunt's advice to me. in two different ways. talking about books is fun. the stuff of parties and dinner conversation. that is blindingly obvious to me when i'm actually engaged in that kind of informal face-to-face reviewing, when i'm talking about books with other people who love to do so. and i try very hard to remember it as well when i'm engaged in more formal reviewing. not because i think that books and reviews are a form of entertainment in the shallowest

sense, to the contrary, that deep substantive engagement with books is one of life's most durable and enduring and deep pleasures and i do think that a huge part of our responsibility as critics is to -- is to commute in both sense of the work to pleasures to our reader. and the second is books and conversation about books is -- serves as kind of a binding agent among strangers and in that sense -- and bear with me for a moment and i know it will sound incredibly weird but i sometimes think the real pleasure i get from books is just the kind of subset of my awe of my consciousness, that it exists. a hunk of meat can somehow have awareness and have ideas and

come up with, you know, beautiful sentences and the odyssey and orlando and then the sort of secondary mystery it can go ahead and convey all that to another hunk of meat and this is such a fundamental part of our everyday life that it starts to seem banatural and one of the things that i love about books is that they remind you no, actually that is astonishing. to write a beautiful sentence or to say something about your own experience of life that is so astute and so precise that it illuminates and enlarge my experience that is first of all amazing and second of all as everybody in this room knows, it is so hard to do. and over and over i am actually so moved when people manage to pull it off. i spend my time thinking about books because it reminds me simultaneously of that vast strangeness that is the

experience of being human and also of the amazing intimacy and the possibility of connecting with one another and that to my mind is a perfectly sufficient argument to do what we do. and speaking of connection before i get off the stage i just just very quickly thank to a couple people of me being here tonight. the "new york times" review entrusted me with several books this time of the year and gave me the space to say exactly what i wanted to about them. everybody i worked there was a pleasure but i should specifically thank two people actually who are no longer there. one is jenny schussler and one is adam moss. and putting incredible faith and wants me to live up to it which i think is one of the gifts you can give a writer. amanda katz is the best editor i know.

the most astute, the most demanding and supportive. she talked me through every review last year and a good bit beside if there was an nbcc award for best editor of catherine schultz, she would definitely win it and finally i need to thank all the writers in this room and beyond who made my work possible, whether i am actually reviewing your books or just reading them to remind me of the astonish range of things that literature can do. it is absolutely one of the richest parts of my life. i have read some good books recently and that is because of you. thank you so much. [applause] >> ivan was long with john

leonard and known blakion was one of the founder of the national book critic circle in 1974. in his memory, the nbcc created the award to honor significant sustained contributions to american literary culture. past recipients have included such distinguished individuals as alford kazen, elizabeth hardwick, albert murray, leslie and paul lean. they've also included institutions including the library of america, dotki archive press and penn american center. as previously announced, this year's recipient of the award is an individual, robert b. silvers, who em bodies an institution the new york review of books. both have been indispensable for the works in the united states for as long as the nbcc has been in existence. the new york review was founded

in 1963 as a temporary alternative to new york newspapers that had gone on strike. several of those newspapers, the herald tribune, the journal american and the world telegram and sun are distant memories. but the new york review endid you see and thrives. presenting the award to bob sellers is a frequent contributor to the new york review of books. he is daniel mendelson and he has stood up here on two other joyous occasions. in 2000 he was the recipient of the nbcc's nona blakian citation in excellence in reviewing. and in 2007 his memoir, the lost a search of 6 of 6 million received the nbcc award for autobiography. mendelson's other books include the 1999 memoir, the elusive embrace, desire and the riddle of identity. the 2002 scholarly study gender

and the city in the political plays and in 2009, his two-volume translation of the poetry of cp kavassi. academically trained as a classist he currently occupies the charles right handlet flint chair in humanities at bart college. mendelson has published more than 60 pieces in the new york review of books many of them collected in this 2008 book how beautiful it is and how easily it can be broken. his first appearance in the new york review occurred on april 27th, 2000, with a discussion of ted hughes translation of a book. his subjects have range judicial district from arastpnes and horace to tennessee williams, and mel brooks. because of his extensive association with robert silvers and his sorry with the nbcc, daniel mendelson is the ideal

figure to introduce this year's recipient of the ivan sandroff award. i welcome him now to the stage. applause -- [applause] >> thank you. i have to say that introducing robert silvers to an audience of book critics and publishing eminences is the most spectacul spectacularcally redundant thing i can do. i know one thing which bob will not do is speak gushingly about him and to talk what he means to his writers. i'm going to start with a little story, about a dozen years ago i was having dinner on a small boat in the middle lecturing to a bunch of well healed ivy

graduates when the captain came into the dining room and approached me looking pretty grim, mr. mendelson, he said, would you please follow me to the bridge. there's a transatlantic radio telephone call for you. i followed him up the little metal steps already wondering how i could get a helicopter to whisk me off the ship back to athens for the flight back in new york in time for my parents' funerals since it was clear to me only a catsa of a large magnitude could occasion a transatlantic radio telephone call. and literally shaking i lifted the little x-ray plastic receiver that the captain had handed to me to my ear, hello, i gulp whether the good black suit was back from the dry cleaners on 72 understand street and broadway. [laughter] >> oh, danny came the voice of bob silvers. i museum to the robotizing

crackle on the line. it's so good that i caught you. [laughter] >> look, i don't know if you've got the piece in front of you. [laughter] >> but it's a beginning of it -- i do think it's best to have two sentences with a full stop rather than a semicolon. [laughter] >> i slumped into the captain's chair and surround my voice, yes, bob, i squeaked finally. sure, if you think it makes a difference, absolutely. it certainly does. all right. we'll fax you a final galley and then the familiar valeaddiction he always thanks his writers but as everybody knows in publishing it's his writers who should be thinking him. when you write for bob silvers you're in the best and safest hands in the literary world today. when you write for bob silvers

you know every word matters to him as much as it does to you and as this little anecdote shows, and it's true which i shows puts it in fiction for a metaphor. kidding. [laughter] >> there's no small detail he'll worry about more than you will. as for the big things i can say that writing for robert silvers is the most intellectually stimulating and creatively exhilarating experience that i have ever had and i suspect it's the most intellectually stimulating and creatively exhilarating experience that his other writers have had as well. out of consideration for bob's great modesty, i will bypass any mention as cicero likes to say that he really does like to know everything and can, therefore, not only point you in the direction of things you would not have known or noticed or

taken into account within this or that piece you're working on. but it can also point you in the direction of subjects you might never dreamed might be your subjects but, of course, he knows better. i will certainly not refer to his total fair-mindedness, his insistence on what's just rather than flashy which makes your own arguments better because fairer themselves. or to the tonic precision of his thought which will make your writing more precise, too. compelling, he likes to say of that word, compelled to do what exactly. [laughter] >> i have no intention of pointing to his inexhaustible kindness, generosity and patience, his willingness to work with you until it's right and everyone who writes for him knows that until can mean weekends, the fourth of july, thanksgiving day and 2:31 in the morning between a friday and saturday and finally i wouldn't dream of embarrassing him by

noting his immense good humor, his terrific good cheer, his elegance of spirit and his deep humanity, the personal qualities that i know have inspired in more than one writer an enormous affection on top of the limitless respect for and profound gratitude toward him that we feel. no. you won't hear that from me. what you'll hear and what i'll ask you to join me in saying is simply great thanks. ladies and gentlemen, i'm very proud to present robert silvers. [applause] >> >> well, thank you very much.

and thank you particularly, danny. i must say one of the satisfaction of being an editor is anticipation. you think that there's something that you know is going to be delicious or pleasurable or fine and that's how i feel when i think of danny's next piece. [laughter] >> it's going to be on man's metamorphosis and it does seem to me starkly and unexpected for so many reviewers, critics that allow me to receive this honor and i'm touched by it and grateful for it. now, looking back i see what brought me here started 58 years

ago in paris in 1954 when i walked into the tiny office of the paris review and doris took out an empty wire basket with the words managing editor, a little label in it and he put in that basket a draft translation of a short basket with a long manuscript from mariksh with the words need cutting and in that basket there was bills from the printer. and ever since that moment, i've been an editor at new york

review, i've always thought of the editor and still do as a kind of -- as someone you might say, who should stay in the middle distance, someone -- someone who dreams of bringing together the writers he admires and the group of readers he hopes will appreciate them and then stays out of the way. now, at harper's in 1959 -- i was lucky when robert lowe's wife elizabeth hardwick winner of one of these awards who seemed to me and still seems to me the finest and most fatistious critical writer of some time. she contributed to a special issue -- i edited her essay the

deadline of book review. the decline of book reviewing. that essay she wrote that the leading book review at that moment -- and hear i quote her had been acting as a hidden persuader generally defying whatever interests there might be in books or literary matters the flat praise, the faint dissension, the minimal style and the light little article. the absence of involvement passion, character, ex sixteen trisity, the lack alas of their literary tone itself has made the "new york times" into a provincial literary journal. this as you can imagine cause a storm at least not in harper and roe publishing company which

sought reviews at the "times" and it raised the question whether there might be something different. and it was a few years later during the third month of that famous "new york times" printers strike that my friend jason epstein rang me up at my home that he and his wife barbara had dinner with elizabeth hardwick and they thought it occurred that it was the only time perhaps in history that one could start a new book review without a penny of capital since all the publishers were going crazy with books coming from the press and no place to advertise. and so would he -- he asked would i leave harper's as it could be done? and the editor and chief of harper's jack fisher said good.

great experience. you'll be back in a month. and in three weeks we sold many page of ads barbara and i and we asked the writers what we -- among a good many others we asked them to write book reviews, no payment in two weeks. and they did. and since then, some 49 years ago, we had nearly 1,000 issues and they ever about 15,000 pieces. now, could that really be true, 50,000 pieces? it couldn't have happened without elizabeth and barbara, my partner of 43 years and our

publisher ray headiman who joined us in the 1980s and kept his word that we would have the same complete editorial freedom we had when we found in the paper. more editorial freedom for longer, i think, than anyone ever had. and yet barbara and i didn't have any very defined program except our shared admiration for certain writers we loved. i think our general inclination from the first was to be skeptical of state power and to take the side of people who had suffered from it. people would bullied harassed or tortured or disappeared because of their opinions or their values, whether under communist regimes under right ring military regimes or repressive

regimes supported by the u.s. or just blocks away from our offices on the streets of new york where joan didion resisted the historical consensus about the central park jogger. and because we could do what we wanted, before and after ray joined us in the mid-80 and he backed us all the way. it didn't matter that some people cancelled their subscriptions. now, in all this time, we never published an editorial of our own, setting out anything. we wanted to find people who's often very different and sometimes obnoxious views deserve to be published as we

thought. except in one -- in one issue -- first, and there we wrote as follows. the new york presents reviews of some more interesting published. it doesn't seek merely to fill the gap caused by the printers strike but to take the opportunity to publish the sort of literary journal the editors and contributors in america. needed the time nor space has been spent on books which were trivial in their intentions and venal in their effects except occasionally to reduce a temporary inflated reputation or call attention to a fraud. [laughter] >> the hope of the editors is to suggest however imperfectly some

of the qualities that are responsible, general should have and to discover whether there is an american not only of the time and the need for such a review but the demand for it. now, while i'm expressing my thanks for my experiences, jason, ray, and the contributions from thousands of our writers and to my now -- my now literally hundreds of fellow editors and editorial assistants, i want to say that is what we're still trying to do. thanks a lot. [applause] >> thank you.

hello. i'm greg. and i chaired the poetry committee this year and so i have the pleasure of presenting our first book award for the night. it was good year for poetry and so it was very difficult to come up with our five finalists. they are forest gamble published by new directions, laura, space in chains published by copper canyon press, use of, the co-millian couch published by farr strauss and giroux. and devotions published by the university of chicago press. and i will read -- well, and so the 2011 nbcc award for poetry

goes to space and chains by laura. [applause] >> and i will read the citation from the board. no poet alive has worked harder than laura to depict the american life course. her sharply vivid poems show her as a girl, as a wayward teen as a worried mother with a -- teenaged son and whose adult daughter fall ill. her father's deadline and her reactions to it guide poems as scary and beautiful as builtfully recalcitrant as real lives containing as they do quote the chaos of bird song after a rainstorm. the steam rising off the asphalt, a small boy in boots opening the back door stepping

out and someone calling to him from the kitchen, sweetie, don't be gone too long. so i give the award to laura. [applause] >> you don't actually have an award. >> no, we don't have appear award. but you will get one but not up here. [laughter] >> can i say thank you. that's the bad thing about going first, i guess. don't do what i did. i'm just really grateful. i didn't have anything prepared that it never came across my mind. i never came like this before. i want to say copper canyon press and michael who has devoted making beautiful books and i hope that now we can read

books on things that aren't books that there will still be room for that. and lisa bankoff who has been with me my whole writing life and encouraging me antonia nelson who came with me and my husband and son who give me all my material for better or worse. thank you so much. [applause] >> hello. i'm carlin of the chronicle of higher education i was the chair of the criticism committee this year with eric williamson and you would think we know what we're doing when we come to criticism because we're critics but every year i've done this we end up arguing and deciding what criticism is. so i guess we have work ahead of

us. the finalist this year in criticism, david bilos, is that a fish in your ear translation and the meaning of everything, faber and faber. jeff dyer. the human condition. jonathan the ecstasy of influence, doubleday. karaoke culture, open letter. ellen willis out of the final deep ellum willis on rock music edit by the university of minnesota press. and the award this year goes to jeff dyer. [applause] >> our citation by greg of the

criticism committee -- what makes jeff dyer a breath of fresh air of state-of-the-art theorists which has for the most part been the mainstay of literary criticism. this new sampler of dyer's freelance work is of dry wit and acute observations and it's the passionate and personal approach to his subjects that makes dyer's work shine. if you have never read dyer who is a true original and possibly the best writer in britain this is the place to start. he possesses a distinctive voice that crosses genres, often melding fiction with nonfiction, autobiography with literary criticism and a mash-up of english schoolboy with new way of romanticism. otherwise it's a pitch perfect encounter with dyer's critical eye and ideas. if essays and reviews are meant to enlighten to reveal the writers limits and biases then

dyer is guilty of both. he treats writers as if our imaginations matter and with more respect what often passes for culture and interim today. jeff's dyer work is a in relation addition of all our writers' lives. jeff dyer? >> you get the same fat check as the last writer. [laughter] >> thank you so much. i'm really -- i'm really overwhelmed actually. from the time i began writing really i always -- cussed i loved writing so much be published in america and so to

be recognized in america by a jury -- if that's the right word of fellow critics is really fantastic. it's the phil cilman of a dream really. i've got lots of people to think and actually i want to begin by thanking one of my fellow finalists. my friend jonathan, there's two kinds of clever people. there are clever people who make me feel stupid and there are clever people who make you feel more clever. jonathan is in the latter camp and it seems to such an extent that by being on the short list with him i've sort of been elevated to some super clever level but i also need to thank him because he actually gave me the title for giving the room of the english edition of essays

and so it was so generous of him and in an equal rash generosity i don't know how much this price is worth but i'm going to split it with him. there he is. [laughter] >> and there's some, obviously, to thank at gray wolf. right from the start it was just an absolute pleasure. they sent me a cover. i loved the cover right away. and so i'd like to thank aaron, katie, and fiona mccray. it's just been a wonderful experience but the thing that makes me really happy about being able to accept this award is to pay thanks to the person who first got me published in america, ethan who was then at fsg. and it was him who took this

book on at gray wolf, although he's moved to mcsweeney. he's a ruthlessly ambitious person. [laughter] >> and clearly in addition, i would really like to thank you all but i hope you'll all join me in thanked my great friend champion so thank you all very much. [applause] >> oh. buenos noches. it's been a long day. plenty of conversation, some confrontation but eventually we come to a consensus. the finalists from the category

of autobiography, diane ackerman 100 names for love, a stroke, a marriage and a language of marriage norton. a memoir, free press. harlem is nowhere, a journey to the mecca of black america little brown. lewis, it calls you back an odyssey to love, addiction, revolutions and healing touchstone. deb, revolution the year i fell in handcuff and went to join the war henry holtz. this year's year and autobiography goes to mira. [applause] >> the memory of power. [applause] >> mira the memory palace is a

beautiful poetic, harrowing memoir of love, lost and forgiveness that chronicles a union with norma and an 81-year-old woman. mira changes her name and wanders across the globe in an attempt to reorient her life but the germany is cut short by the impending death of her attacker. she returns to sift through the rubble of her past, every item and reminder of pain and hardship but i also stepped closer to healing. where compassion and -- as wrong, amiss, crooked and distorted by mental illness but this jointiveness makes this type of debut a dazzling narrative.

her wounds came from the same source as her power. >> congratulations. >> i have a friend who got married. he's still married. and he didn't prepare anything because he said i didn't know how i'd feel at the day i got married so how could i write anything down so i'm still getting over my friend laura's congratulations. i have a list of poo emto thank and it's in my boot. okay. i did write something down just in case. just so you know, i came to writing through the back door. when i met laura at an artist

colony 5,000 years ago, i was making books in editions of 10. i come from making my own paper, binding books, doing etching, letter press the whole thing so it's kind of surprising to be here. i guess moor people than 10 read the book. i think that's kind of cool. a lot of people think i'll just give you the a-list and i'm going to forget some people but first thank you national book critic circle. it's pretty amazing. i'm really appreciative that you invited me to this party. and let's see. the obvious, my agent, jennifer gates from zachary and schuster. and she's a wonderful friend and

she's had faith in me the whole time and thank you. and the entire company of free press -- there's a lot of love that went around with this book. marcelle levin -- let's see i can't read my own handwriting martha 11 the publisher, suzanne donahue, my two amazing beloved editors -- when i say beloved it, i mean, from the bottom of my heart. they're funny, warm, great to go out to eat with. [laughter] >> the publicity team who was there at the beginning and caressa hays who's hanging around clark kelly the entire marketing team, the designers of those -- ellen -- ah, jane

rossman who helped edit this book and alex who's the other half of my brain, and doug -- he's my husband and i'm going to remember this time. doug, this is -- there's a lot of other people but one more thing the shelter that my mother lived in the last three years of her life has been renamed in her honor. it's called -- now called the norma hair women's center and this is -- this award i dedicate to them because they really took care of my mom the last three years of her life. thanks for inviting me. [applause] >> i'm benjamin moshier chairman

of the biography committee and we've had five nominees, five finalists. mary gabriel, love and capital, karl and jenny marx to a birth of a revolution, john f. kennan an american life from penguin press. paul hendrickson, hemingway's book, everything he loved in life and lost, 1934 to 1961 from knoff, matting marible and ezra fogle. and the 2001 nbcc award and biography goes to john lewis gattis, george f. kennan, an american life. [applause] >> and i'll read the citation

from marianne gwen who couldn't be with us tonight. george f. kennan an american life by john lewis gattis was an american dip plat who he is per rated and appalled his superiors. he never held high office and never loved the necessaries of the diplomatic trade. he's a distinguished yale historian again worked on this biography in 2002. his task ended 30 years later after kennan's death after 101 years old. a long biography. long life. he built a portrait of kennan as a with a soul of a -- i have temperament ill-suited for the -- he may have been unsuited to the diplomacy but it governed -- prevented world war 3 and both restricted and set

the stage for the crumbling of the soviet empire wrote fred kaplan of the "new york times." gattis ably documented kennan's back to the brink of annihilation and gives us is full blood portrait i have a charismatic and complicated man. john lewis gattis. [applause] >> oh, wow! what an honor. this is david gattis john's son and i'm his stepdaughter. this is just incredible and my heart is pounding out of my chest so my stepfather, would

you like to say something. >> sure. i just wanted to say that my father couldn't be here tonight but i know that he has been working on this book for as long as i can remember and i know that this is a long-standing on a very personal project maybe his life's great work although he may always have more in store for all that i know and i just wanted to say that he will be enormously honored and greatfied to receive this award so i want to thank the national book critic circle and all of you. thank you very much. [applause] >> hello. i'm karen long and it was my joy this year to chair nonfiction for the nbcc. ..

liberty's excise american loyalists and the revolutionary war and john sullivan's essays for strauss. this year a non-fiction award

goes to maya gosseniff. [applause] for giving bose to a nation and continuing to fuel political life today, the canadian border, next to nothing about the fate of those colonial partisans on the losing side of the american revolution. part of the brilliance of harvard historian maia gossen f gossenoff's story is to expose the global game changer that created a diaspora of 60,000 refugees in search of safe-haven throughout british atlantic empire in britain itself along

the inhospitable shores of africa and even in india and australia. the crisis precipitated lasting reverberations to help britain come to its own imperial enterprise. liberty, a vest reconsideration of the global effects of the american revolution smuggled into a concise, splendidly written book. an exemplary work of gumshoe research into the lives of loyalists with an eye on larger historical patterns. what makes liberty in exile a remarkable book of history is how skillfully she synthesizes the forgotten -- with an overarching view of the history of empire. with outstanding clarity she makes a compelling case that in losing colonial battles the

loyalists of america achieved their own versions of success not the least of which would be to reshape the picture of british rule. [applause] >> when you read a book about losers you don't expect to get up and give a speech like this. like many of my fellow winners this evening i don't have anything prepared and don't even have enough boots to reach in to. what i'd do have is an acute consciousness of a historian, and the sectors that brought me this evening and who i helped to thank. beginning with the subject of my book who as i tried to argue

were losers who were left out of history for so long and who left enough traces behind but i could piece together to retell their stories. we have to thank the serendipity of the past. i also feel very humbled by the history of this prize and many people who were fellow nominees and previous recipients. and i am humbled by the confidence the book critics circle has placed in this work. i need to thank all the many people in my life who made this book happen beginning with my agent, andrew wylie who received a book proposal from the eight years ago in the form of five paragraphs i had written as a ph.d. student and managed to see something in this and send it on to where carol janeway has been

a superb editor and many others ranging from the designers all the way through to all the terrific editorial support and publicity represented -- and i would like to thank the friends and family who followed these routes with me. it is very easy to divide these prizes among millions. i would like to divide my prius to the stories of the losers who have won and all the people who helped make that happen. [applause] >> it was my pleasure to chair the fiction committee this year.

the finalists are agent cold for open city published by random house. the marriage plot published by sarah strauss and drew. alan hauling hearst but strangers child. and collected stories. published by look out books and data. stone arabia published by scribner and this year's award goes to eat it perlman. edith perlman. [applause] binocular vision, the great list of human mysteries which includes construction of pyramid and persistent use of styrofoam as a packing material. why isn't the death perlman famous?

it is a mystery but binocular vision will change things. this collection of short stories, 21 drawn from across her career makes the convincing case that she is among the finest writers. around the globe new england, latin america, israel and russia the stores are both surprising and exquisitely controlled. perlman is as adept with young characters as old ones with women and men. the collection's final story bars the title from emerson and on a wooded pond. the main character, a woman whose cancer has return is not looking for transcendence. what she finds is what all her stories lead up to in their tenderly but frankly drawn characters, in their stories of death and love and memories. a moment of grace. [applause]

a i did bring a piece of paper. i thought of 5 won i would probably change -- faint. i needed something to hold on to. my deep thanks to the national book critics circle judges who have given this honor not only to me but to the short story itself, a genre that is often overlooked. great collaboration to alan -- enormously talented writers i am proud to be associated with. thanks to my loving family, mile-long time friend, agent and champion, jill mirham, my

colleagues, rose not especially and the bold young editors of lookout book. emily smith and george who chose me to be their debut author and created such a beautiful book. to the publishing lab at university of north carolina wilmington to and patrick and all of you to coming. i am grateful to the three small presses who published my earlier collections and the many magazines who published my stories and the many who rejected them. and magazines committed to keeping literature alive and they deserve thanks from every writer. tonight particularly from me. thank you. [applause]

>> thank you for joining us tonight. the reception, 55 west thirteenth street on the second floor. have a good evening and congratulations to all our pilots. [applause] >> for more information about the national book critics circle visit their web site bookcritics.org. while serving in iraq from 2003 to 2009 u.s. navy seal sniper chris kyle accumulated more officially confirmed kills than any other sniper in u.s. history.

his new bestselling autobiography americans sniper, mr. kyle writes about the early career he has a professional rodeo rider, challenges he overcame to become a seal at his experiences in iraq. she joins booktv for a live 1-hour conversation about his book on saturday, april 7th beginning at noon eastern time. join the conversation by calling in during the program or sending in questions or comments to booktv@c-span.org or tweeting us at booktv. >> as you can see this is a very short introduction to a very big subject. the u.s. supreme court. not the kind of book and author is going to do a reading from. not a dramatic novel but it is up pretty dramatic story when you step back and think about the supreme court over the centuries. many of you are probably here because the supreme court today this very day or next week,

three days of a health care case being argued. the court is more visible in american life and it has been for some time. i will chat about that -- and kind of frame the story of the supreme court. what i try to do was put myself in the position of i am assuming many of view or myself before i had a chance to attend yale law school the next 30 years writing about the supreme court on a daily basis for the new york times and that is to say somebody interested in public affairs and civic life of the country but just doesn't happen to be an expert on this particular topic. what would a person like that as i was and maybe some of you are, need to know to really get

personally satisfying handle on the court. with that as a kind of framework i propose to make a series of observations i will collaborate on and turned it over for what i expect will be a fruitful and fun conversation among us. when you step back and think about the court one thing that jump out at me as i was organizing the material to write this book is the extent to which the supreme court is the author of its own story. it wasn't given very much to work with. i will read the first sentence of article 3 of the constitution which says the judicial power of the united states will be vested in one supreme court and in such inferior courts as the congress may