these things happening in the street, on the news comes it happened again and again and again. the choice to not know is really a deliberate act of forgetting or act of lack of engagement, a refusal to understand that they have voted in the mechanisms that have allowed these things to happen. >> some of these authors have appeared on booktv and you can find their programs in their entirety at booktv.org. just type the author's name in the search bar at the top of the page. >> good afternoon, everyone. my name is justin and i am the chairman of the board of directors of the before columbus foundation, and would like to welcome everyone to the 41st annual american book awards. as many of you know, the before columbus foundation has been

beating a vision of american literature from a thread that exists long before the united states of america. many of our winners this afternoon provide an even deeper experience of what decision can be illuminated as. we are very fortunate to have some of our directors with us this afternoon including the founder ishmael reed as well as poet laureate of california, poet laureate of united states, formerly, and author and political commentator. i would begin i thinking our friends at the san francisco public library for hosting the 41st annual american book awards, and also the academy of

american poets for their generous support of the before columbus foundation and the ceremonies this afternoon. to begin i would quote from the imminent frederick douglass, find out just what any people will quietly submit to, , and yu a found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them. and these will continue until they are resisted by either words or blows, or both. the limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they all press. all of the winners of the american book award this year have in one way or another refused to submit quietly. all of the winners of the award this year and one way or another have helped illuminate the path

towards freedom. i would like to begin by welcoming one of the finest poets working in america today, the wonderful reginald dwayne betts who received the american book award this year for his collection, fallon. -- fallon. >> i have been writing for many and always felt that i am honored with american book awards would be one of the real heights of my career. at of course part of this is because i began reading when i was in prison. so much of what i thought to be done with the story. and so i am really humbled to

receive this honor. i am humbled to be in the company of other award winners. it's just to acknowledge, to be something that is really dealt with the credit. i wrote a book called feldman, about what it means to be incarcerated, what it means to do with your demons. i wrote that book not just as a strip myself but as a store of friends and people i care about, people don't even know and i wrote it trying to craft something that was really good art and acknowledge by the before columbus foundation, it's the thing that both humbles me -- [inaudible] because i survived prison.

i believe certain things might be possible. i think you and i think everybody who put work into selecting the winners this year. i am really thankful to be in the company of folks. >> and joining us to introduce the poet sara borjas, winner of the american book award for heart like a like a window, moe a cliff.

>> unmute yourself. >> i'm talking to myself. i was talking to myself. this is really a great pleasure for me to introduce sara borjas and also to be part of the before columbus foundation board with the rest of the team. it's such a beautiful thing to do to honor writers that are new writers come writers that are -- as all the good people putting words down and putting expanding the minds and embracing all her communities in one way or another. i have a couple of notes the really the thing that heart like a window mouth like a cliff is exactly like it sounds, it's sharp. it is see-through. it breaks and it flows, and the

flows are deep, wide and explosive. it is a critical collection. you read it just like a see-through window. you read it very clearly. you see many themes, scorching struggle and transformation of a woman's voice, of a female body and all the scorching encounters in xicanx pocha split in half at the quarters, relationships, family, origins, who am i, where am i going and most of all, for burning heart of her burning desire or her burning interconnections with life, family, relationships, gender.

it's just incredible and fiery. i salute sara borjas for this incredible accomplishment, and we all do. sara borjas of course is from fresno and was a lecture at riverside and develop -- most interesting project and class. we will talk about that at some of the time but she's very experimental and also very direct. one of the lines in this book is let me live again, and that tells you what's inside, what's burning inside this text. let us salute sara borjas for heart like a window mouth like a

cliff. >> that's all the words i have. >> thank you. >> congratulations. >> thank you, everybody, for coming and for listening. sometimes i feel i was born needing an apology and i fought through my life, many from the wrong people. thomas wrote sometime in my life open my eyes in the dark. in the dark of this book i i ln i don't want to die, about forgetting my mom. my dad and myself -- for giving. this is why i wrote this book. i i want to live beyond shame,,

which i reckon it's just another tactic adopted from our oppressors. i wrote this book because in my heart i want to live better. i wrote this book because of want to see my parents as full people in love them wholly. i wrote this book because i didn't want my heartbreak or there's to be for nothing. ..

my dad, mom. thank you to my mom and dad for your willingness to work to be the complicated subjects of this book. thank you to the teachers, artists, family and friends who helped me dig and be as big as i can. my sister amelia, emile,rosa, uncle harvey, uncle richard , julia, vanessa, my nino and everybody in my family. i want to thank carmen jiminez smith for as a publisher taking a risk on something she would never have been considered a risk and as a person seeing me when i didn't have the words and lifting me up so i can find an loving me because of. thank you to sarah, susie,

natalie and lost at no ending for making this book. thank you to the people who used their various privileges a meal rather thanseek absolution . thank you all these, thank you black music and black culture thank you fresno, my student's colleagues and co-conspirators . of finally of crop rules and how you cansee all the way down no matter what . books might whereas, fresh by richard siting, blood by shane mccrae and my other time by rosa,. the word no out of any woman of color's mouth. lifetime movies, danielle steel, children's series. my mom's sense of humor ownership talkers everywhere. my sister's ruthless

sentimentality and the friends who supported me in my most messy moments . i want to dedicate this award to the time my mom called me and said i don'twant to die like this . each time someone has chosen to tell the truth and uphold the lie that makesthem feel small. each time someone has chosen to live with dignity rather than silence . thank you all. >> thank you so much sarah. in the darkened panorama of american poetry, bob coffman remains a singular figure. like many of the jazz masters as he admired, he writes in a voice that is uniquely his and recognizably his own.

as part of the b generation, for most of the last several decades, he has largely been written out of the official histories. the "collected poems of bob kaufman" published by city life last year edited by neeli cherkovski, raymond foye and tate swindell does the lions share of the new work of reviving and resuscitating bob's proper place in the history of international literature. composed of his three major works as well as adding a supplement of a major chapter in his poetry of unpublished work, collected , "collected poems of bob kaufman" received the american book award this year. joining us, raymond foye, a

man who has played such a positive role in the legacy of bob kaufman joiningus by video . raymond foye. >> my name is raymond foye and i'm one of the editors of "collected poems of bob kaufman" along with neeli cherkovski and tate swindell of the city lights books. i'd like to thank everyone at the american book award and before columbus foundation and in particular justin and ishmael for this particular recognition of bob kaufman's work. it's been a long time coming. kaufman's work has existed in the shadows and obscurity for many years and it's been very gratifying to see it take its place in society in the year 2020 and because he simply has so much to say and to offer us about these times. his poems about racism, about institutionalized violence, jail poems, poems against capital punishment, the poems

about theholocaust of the native americans . but also certain things i didn't recognize for the first time reading him. he has a lot of poems about the effects of advertising, television, hollywood and the media on people's consciousness and power this was going to result in a gradual disengagement with reality and the reality problem. we can see taking place today. bob's a very prophetic poet and that just means his ideas were ahead of their time. as were ishmael reads ideas with the columbus foundation, ideas that seemed so idealistic at the time now are simply understood by people as a necessity so it's been a beautiful thing to see these ideas of a few poets

find their way into society in such catalyzing ways. and i guess the lessons to never underestimate the ideas of poets and the work of a poet. so i just want to thank everyone for this award and it was with an act of love and devotion and i'm very honored to have been able to contribute a little bit in recognition of a genius and great imagination in bob coffman. >> thank you so much raymond foye. one of the winners of the american book awards this year is stacyann chin. i believe sheis with us today . >> her work very much follows

in the spirit and dynamic of one of the revolutionary poets of the cultural revolution of the 1960s and 70s and 80s. . sean gave who took coined the term corey upon to describe the phenomenon of poetry as an engagement with the body in the form of dance, in the form of movement. with the imaginative power of the poem could read animate by in the spirit not only of dance but of a new consciousness. stacyann chin crossfire a need for survival winner of the american book award this year very much embodied this visible and the struggle and we are very pleased to honor the work of stacyann chin

with theamerican book award for crossfire: a litany for survival . i would now like to introduce carla brundage, poet and journalist, cultural activist in the bay area and long serving member of the board of directors of the before columbus foundation. >> good afternoon. i'm so happy to spend this time with you and i'm honored to present the american book award to kali fajardo-anstine. she and her riveting collection of short stories represents a critique of peter iraqi in the most guttural and jarring way. this collection could not be more timely for generations, us officials have neglected to investigate a frightening number of unaccounted for

missing indigenous latin women. unseen stories, what strikes the reader the most is the simmering anger so beautifully rendered the theme of voiceless miss. yet there are moments of strength and elders who survive and raise children to allow healing, rescue orbury their daughters . sabrina and karina is a moving narrative of unrelenting feminine power and an exploration of the universalexperiences of abandonment , heritage and an internal sense of home. her unseen style and hard-edged language win over the reader. the voices of thedisappeared call out from an ancient gravesite . look, fajardo-anstine women seem to say. can you see us now?

i'm so honored to award this american book award to kali ajardo-anstine. >> thank you for this honor. so thank you to the columbus foundation for an american book award, thank you to the judges. you all the winners of these are vital andnecessary books you've written . i fell in love with books as a child and they made me feel safe and they were a constant companion to my mind and because of this i knew books were sacred but by the time i was a youngteenager , i decided that i would become a writer and i got a job at a rare antiquarian bookshop in dunkirk and i have our books of all sorts . it was during this time i realize the fact i had intrinsically known and that is women who come from my

complicated ancestral mixture, women like me could only be created out of the american left, indigenous and mexican and european , all these things later together as one. our lives in the specific american conditions which created us were not often in literature or prominently anywhere. official histories through textbook archives. i spent much of my life doing invisible to mainstream america. it became my ambition to know myself and my ancestors through fiction and through doing so i hope my stories would illuminate what it means to be human. i've dedicated my life to literature and i will continue to do so to the end. i want to thank my mama and papa and six siblings and grandparents and godmother and ancestors who are no longer here. my agent and friend julian as nick and my editor chris jackson and everyone at oneworld who published this book. long before i was a writer i was a reader. thank you to the great works of literature which taught me and shipped me as a person and to my readers for finding

me, you have given me the greatest gift of feeling seen and heard, of connecting and sharing our experiences and to all the latinos, chicanos and mixed girls and the outcast in the working class and the working poor and lonely and high school dropouts and lastly i must say thankyou to the short story form for giving me my first form .this one is for all of us. you very much. >> thank you so much kali fajardo-anstine. it is not often enough that an author, a thinker comes forward with as valiant a critique of the use of technology to reinforce principles of oppression, and degradation. many of us are surprised at this late date i the way in

which so-called entertainment and popular culture can be limited towards the end of political violence and political control. these spheres are illuminated and given extraordinary clarity by a myth of scholarship. i author tara fickle. the race card, from gaming technologies to model minorities. it is a great pleasure to welcome tara fickle, winner of the american book award for the race card: from gaming technologies to model minorities. >> hello oregon. i'm so honored to be accepting this award and even more humbled to join the ranks of current and previous award winners. many of whom i'm not exaggerating have been

unbeknownst to them and inspiration and an aspiration . i'm sure stacy and chin doesn't remember me as a college sophomore sitting riveted in the audience at kroll. i'm sure that julian as far doesn't know that i had my mind completely blown by the transformation when i was in graduate school. and i'm sure chin long joystick a and the team behind they call us enemy don't know how many of my own students who they have touched when i can share their work. one of the unexpected pleasures of this award was getting the school through the page of recipients and finding myself not just in great and familiar company but also to get more inspiration for so many things that i want to be reading . another unexpected pleasure is for me to get to honor myself allowed.

the people who made itwriting this book possible . there's a part of me and everyone among the many teachers, colleagues, friends, editors and press and funding bodies, iwant to mention my partner , and my parents. part. >> hi mom. >> i've always wanted to do that. something i have always admired about activists is their willingness to stand up and speak up. to use their voices to say what people like me might be here or what they might not want to hear. i have to admit part of the reason i became an academic is because i was better at writing down and speaking of. this book speaks to many more people than just the 60 or so in my academic subfield which is usually the best rituals

all four of scholars.and i will be forever grateful to the before columbus foundation for seeing this book for what it wanted to be and for giving a platform to be evenmore than that . i think that you all know how unique thefoundation is . but i'm also amazed at how prescient it has always been. these remarks to go back to my copy of the foundation's anthologies. for making anyone catherine trueblood and john wall. and in the introduction i catherine sean, there was so much that could have been written today. about the need to do what they call redefined the mainstream. and what they said is very concept of a mainstream culture and a minority culture is the narrow view. even as it was and continues

to be framed as the expansive view. the torrent view or the liberal view. and of course jane cortez the poet who rightly noted that what gets published is minority literature. what remains unpublished is really in fact a mainstream. and i know academic writing is a bit different than writing novels or short stories or poetry but i find these words and the work of the foundation itself so validating because in academia, we write as if there were other ways of getting input. and other words into the minoritythat should be seen as the mainstream . like any quote on quote minority writer, we also face expectations about what we should write about how it should be found and even though we think we're exceeding these confines even though we're trying to resist , we often times get reframed as the exceptionthat proves the rule .

so thank you once more to the foundation and to the many people who made this book possible for seeing me in this book. not as the work of the minority but of the mainstream. >> thank you so much tara. it's a pleasure to welcome one of our directors at the before columbusfoundation . author and political commentator, he will be introducing erica lee . >> we are having trouble hearingyour sound .

>> you've got to unmute. >>. >> could you try unmutethem please . we still can't hear you. >> how about now? >> can hear you now sorry about that, guys. i just delivered the most brilliant words you'll never hear in your life but unfortunately you were unable to hear it but that's okay. you so much to everyone for joining the before columbus foundation 41st annual american book awards.

we exist and thrive despite being in a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic that has killed over 220,000 americans. mainly afflicting black and brown communities, thosewho are poor, those who are compromised . in the past four years of this full gary and presidency many people have been committed to resistance. but for the rest of us, resistance is simply telling your story . it means leaving your house. it means having joy. it means having children read in the face of being erased, eliminated or oppressed. the american book awards continues in its attempt to expand what it means to be an american. to push the space, to stretch , to accommodate the activists and academics, the writers, poets , black and brown communities . those who are white but once were considered white.

low income communities, the middle-class communities, those considered to be rapists and criminals. those who are seen as invaders and i feel this because our next award recipient, academic professor erica lee has been a masterful job in her book america for americans. i get no money for this, america for americans, a history of zeno phobia in the united states to show that what we are witnessing is simply a remake. it's the story with the new racists. it's a tag you're it where the bogeyman has been replaced and the past was determined. it was irish catholics, the europeans, those people who are now white once weren't considered white. they were the invaders in the 1920s. where there was a chinese exclusion is for japanese-americans were born and raised were seen as the invaders of the day franklin delano roosevelt decided to

enter our fellow japanese-americans because they were seen as a threat. where it was mexican american laborers who were the casualty of the immigration and nationality act at lord of the good immigrants that 1965 immigration nationality act allowed my father who was an immigrant in pakistan to come to thiscountry realize the american dream . it's kind of like it when you make the club one of the rituals in america is you turn around and beatup the other minorities . that's how you improve your mental streets of america rp with gold, there with blood and erica lee is 300 pages as an academic and i give her props is able to tell the story of america where so many americans have had to fight to be unified, to be recognized as a fellow american and she pulls it off in a way that she connects the dots leading up to the trunk presidency and what will come after the trump

presidency and she does it in a prose that doesn't talk down to people. itcommunicates to people . it explains the stories so that you can set there whether you have a college degree or not and you can read it and you are immersed in his history of america where you can, where she proves her case that so many of us have had to fight continuously to be recognized as an american. some of us are stillfighting . so it shows how racism and white supremacy are the i would say perennialvillains of america . and how it takes a multicultural coalition of the willing i would say a multicultural avengers to team up to fight against it and regardless of what happens in the selection that is going to occur nine days from now and i hope you will all vote and if i may say this for my own prerogative under my own opinion, do not for trunk, though provided. these forces that have been

unleashed by trump, the demons that have escaped pandora's box are the demons that have always existed pride in america. it will not die a silent death. if anything, a child is most unruly before it's put to bed and before wewitnessed the death rattle of white supremacy were going to witness the death march but it takes all of us and all of our communities to work together in tandem to recognize it , to acknowledge it . to see our rules in either resisting it, combating or perpetuating it and to do our part in and celebrate those voices thathave been marginalized orstomped out . we're seeing right now , right now where the president of the united states of america during a moment of reckoning instead of uplifting these voices or simply mentioning black lives matter he is trying to cancel critical race theory, he's trying to cancel our history because that's why it is so important to keep writing our stories because they are always forces there that are willing to stop them out and

so with every word in every page that's all the recipients of the prestigious and i hope you'll continue to be prestigious american book award with every word, every poem, every page that you write you are acting like our ancestors and forefathers not only resisting but creating new protagonists in the american narrative area is able act of life and creation when there are future generations have a chance to sit at the american table and bring our, briand is next to the meatloaf, next to the chow mein and beef at the american table and expand the tent and the table and the people so it is my profound pleasure to award erica lee and american book award for americans for americans. a history of zero phobia in the united states and i'll take prerogative as a president of the columbus foundation, please if you can . donate to the before columbus foundation. we are a nonprofit.

we take immense pride in the fact that we are fueled by love, by passion and by community of artists and writers . we had very little money but if you can it's a nonprofit. please donate to thebefore columbus foundation . your website and if you're lucky enough next year to be joined in person usually you would have to smell literally pass around his and we will take all that money and donated to a just cause but if you can please do donate. it's a nonprofit tax-deductible and support and encourage these brilliant writers. by their work and thank you all for joining us professor erica lee, take itaway . >> thank you so much. for also giving it twice. that was just really amazing and i'm very touched. first i want to say congratulations to all of the award winners to which we were all together but i also

thank justin and the teamfrom the san francisco public library for bringing us together virtually . thank you so much to the or community for choosing america's for americans for this great honor. this wonderful prestigious award. i'm amazed to be among the company of so many wonderful authors activists. i am particularly grateful to be be recognized by the before columbus association, a group that has been doing such important work, the group that i've long admired and respect them for its mission to promote freedom and liberation through literature. we're coming up on an election and this is the reason why i wrote this book. i started in the weeks and months after the 2016 presidential election really as a way to help my students

most of whom are first-generation immigrants and refugees to understand what happened, to understand how we could have elected donald trump to be our president. and i explained that this was not a blip. this was not an aberration, that this is part of a very long history of zero phobia and racism has been part of the united states from the very beginning. it's one of the ways in which inequality has worked and i've also argued that zero phobia is not just something that is passed immigrants, it hurtsus all. it speeds the divisions , the white nationalism, white supremacy that is already lurching much in our society. i hope the message of the book not only reveals what's at stake in nine days also why it's going to be so important that we keep on pushing against racism in all of its forms long after

november 3 regardless of who wins this election. so thank you to the before columbus foundation for this recognition. it means so very much to me and thank you to all the people who made this book possible. to sandy dykstra to my editor and the whole team at basic books for believing in this project and making it better in every way. to my students who continue to inspire me every day to my family, my sister laurel and kristin. my husband mark, our two sons and billy have nurtured and uplifted me during some really dark days. thank you so much and congratulations to all. >> thank you so much erica lee. many of the dystopic science-fiction nightmares in

the books of science fiction and literary masters over the last hundred years anticipated a social control mechanism that would inflict spiritual violence as well as social degradation and exploitation through the means of a vast electronic network of communication. we very few authors have come to this form with such a profound, supple and intuitive understanding of how these systems once in place would attack the ability of the individual to excavate personal memory. and the cartography of the interior life that was at stake under that attack.

yoko ogawa with her book the memory police commits to such an illumination of understanding and a wealth of courage found in her work. again, the great great honor to bring the american book award to yoko ogawa for her novel the memory police and we are joined by its translator, professor stephen snyder. >> hello. my name is snyder and i had a tremendous honor of translating yoko ogawa's novel the memorypolice. she wanted me to read the following remarks that she sent for this occasion . first i'd like to say that i am truly honored and delighted at the memory police has been selected for this wonderful award and i want to expect my heartfelt

thanks to everyone who has worked to make the american book award possible. the fact that my novel has been able to be transcended very language and move out into a wider world and due to a number of people including but translator stephen snyder, my agents and the editors. i think all of you from the bottom of my heart . the memory police portrays a group of people trapped on an island where were no apparent reason their memories are being stolen from them. and yet all while they strive to leave behind proof of their existence. it is my hope that the novel will have some meaning for our world today. practice we are by the invisible walls of the coronavirus. i can only say how deeply grateful i am to this moment. and i can only echo those sentiments and say that i too am deeply grateful . thank you. >> thank you very much. professor snyder and again, congratulations to the author

, yoko ogawa of the memory police . joining us in a moment, the poet jake skeets whose book eyes bottle dark with a mouthful of flowers received the american book award this year this is one of the most extraordinary works of art and poetry published in many many years and by way of introduction, i would like to bring you the words of one of our long-standing directors here at four columbus foundation who is the poet laureate of the united states of america, joy harjo. eyes bottle dark with a mouthful of flowers case skeets debuted book of poetry as a study of beauty. what it needs for nourishment as it emerges from the muddy

roads, railroad tracks and other chaos, slithering through order town. it is about has earned powers and lifetimes of the study of transformation . for instance, a navajo language interrupts in the fuel of english. how will the way can survive the squalid trauma of racial hate. how poetry can sing duty no matter that destruction. this is one of the finest first books. it is a great great pleasure and honor to bring the american book award to jake skeets and we welcome him this afternoon. to the 41st annual american bookawards .

>> thank you. thank you jake. >>. [inaudible]. >> my name is jake and i'm coming to you from the nomination. my first, i first want to mention my parents douglas and melinda skeets. my successes of this book and of my careerso far along to them first . and it's really my way of honoring the sacrifices they made to make this book possible. so thanks to my american indian arts program and mentors john king, betty fraser, thank you to my publisher know we. they were able to walk me through this sort of strange publication process. my book also exists because

of the long history of literature and navajo writers who have comebefore me , writers like lucy otto, blackhorse mitchell, who have carried these traditions of beauty and language into this world that we live in now. and also i have to definitely mention the long history as well of native literature and literature of the black and indigenous people of color. to have really shaped what it means to write literature today. and i should also mention that my book also exists because of tragedy the human response to it. i spent the past year post the publication of my book negotiating and thinking through the idea and how we move through race.

however it was the grounding of myself and the physical spaces with readers across the country that made it that much easier. my collection very much relies on the stability of landscape and to help me move through trauma. this american project has relied somewhat on the naming ofthis country as frontier . as border in the wild west or american west or the southwest. where nations and people have mingled for centuries. this reality is very visceral. my book exists in that space. a border town in new mexico nicknamed the indian of the world at john town usa. my negotiation and contemplation of borders based on alcoholism, racial violence, masculinity.mound

beauty and brutality through the lens of a brush through the three, two after field miles of red worms andgrounds . i found beauty in reliable. to carry through the writing of this book. the land gives us this. existence. and we have to remind ourselves to give it back. thank you so much to go before the columbus foundation. this award is an extreme honor. i'm so lucky to follow in the steps, former winners like tommy pico. congratulations to all receiving this award. it's an honor to share the space with you and i'll end with this . my book eyes with a mouthful of flowers opens with the upper brass and navajo which can be translated to from

here there will be duty again. and i hope that you remember to move through this world and move forward in this world in such radiant beauty and duty and beauty and beauty. thank you so much. >> i do so much jake skeets. throughout the history of the american book awards though before columbus foundation has brought four words. many awards to works that previously were disregarded by many of the established figures who normally are considered the tastemakers in american literature and publishing . the american book awards was one of the very first major awards to acknowledge the

form of the graphic novel as having a profound and lasting literary merit and artistic stature owing back to the work of art spiegelman but also of course the great eric drucker who won theamerican book award for flood . this year in the tradition of revising and resuscitating a larger spectrum of art forms but also remaining proceeds with what is also historically rooted in works brought to us today by erica lee and others, we bring the american book award to george tokai, justin huizinga, stephen scott and carmine becker. for they call us enemy. george tokai's personal autobiography of pool in a graphic novel his experiences as a child seen in turn

during the second world war. we are joined today either creators along with george tokai at top shelf productions of this extraordinary work, they called us enemy bygeorge tech i . >> hi. i'm justin eisinger co-author with george takei and carmine becker of the graphic novel they called us enemy. i'm going to start with thanking before columbus foundation for this recognition and offer congratulations to all the other winners . working with george takei to bring his family's stories life hasbeen an incredible honor . people often ask what was it like to work with george takei to which you say it makes me want to be a better person. >> the first on the opportunity to work with george in 2012 and after getting to know him i learned more about the internment and

these atrocities against the hundred 20,000 japanese-americans during world war ii . it's been george's life mission to spread awareness of this andensure that we never forget and we recognize the parallels of our world today . >> i didn't like about the japanese-american incarceration only discovered while working for my heritage. this proves the story is reassuring us that it's a part of american history will not be forgotten. it so important to george and all of us at the wordamerica encompasses all of these myriad inspirations . george redefined the word patriot for me personally as a story that to beamerican means to fight for what our country could be . [inaudible] thank you for trusting us with the story thank you so much to do before columbus foundation. >> thank you very much again and congratulations to george takei, justin eisinger

stephen scottand harmony becker . is not frequent that one can describe a contemporary work as a masterpiece. however, in the case of on earth we are briefly gorgeous from ocean vuong this is certainlythe case . as i spoke moments ago in relationship to the author yoko ogawa's work, the interior excavation of memory can often be the most challenging and difficult of spiritual vocations. with on earth we are briefly gorgeous , ocean vuong creates a tapestry of memory internally with the language that penetrates the sacred capabilities of pain and in

order to re-articulate a world of joy. it is the great honor to bring the american book award to on earth we are briefly gorgeous. and a great honor to welcome ocean vuong. >> hello, my name is ocean vuong. thank you so much for choosing on earth we are briefly gorgeous as the winner of this award and thank you also to the before columbus foundation. i'm proud to share this with one of my heroes natalie diaz with the order founded by ishmael reed . it's hard to still imagine that meant spending hours alone atnight , that it would mean anything. i think how many poems you write, shouting into the

abyss and to have such a story and carefully considered foundation. seeing what you're doing is valuable is incredibly humbling to me. and i know awards are given for things that are already done to me i take this challenge to keep innovating and to keep living up to the prestige that this work missed out on me so thank you very much and i'm proud to have this award. >> thank you so much and again, congratulations to on earth we are briefly gorgeous from author often feel. joining us charles winslow, mister winslow is the author of in west mills the novel that is very much in the

tradition of the blues. and by that i mean the tradition of telling it like it is. with with and wisdom and millions towards survival. it is a beautiful story. the american south. that is told through characters that are often considered marginal . in american life and yet contain the wisdom and again, the wit of survival. and bring joy through the struggle itself. it is a great great honor to welcome deshawn charles winslow for his novel in west mill. charles winslow and i am incredibly grateful as one of the 20/20 recipients of the american book award.

first i'd like to say thank you to the before columbus foundation for all his hard work. andto the readers time out of their busy schedules to read our work . thank you so very much . in 2015 i went to write what would have been a short story that became in west mills. i have questions about someone frommy childhood , a real-life woman who was very special to me. and i viewed fiction as a way to answer the questions that i could not find. i had no idea that that short story would become a novel and it would make it into the hands of people all around the country. i am beyond words. i want to say thank you to faculty and the iowa writers workshop who gave me feedback that was invaluable. i want to thank members of my cohort who read bits and

pieces along the way and summary of the whole novel when it was still a word document. thank you so much. you know who you are. i want to thank my agent tj marx who took a chance on me when many were not willing. i am eternally grateful. and i'm also grateful to him for introducing me and my work to alisa mayer at bloomsbury publishing. lisa helped me carve the novel into what i really wanted to be an i'm eternally grateful that it made out into the world. i do again everyone so much. goodbye. >> thank you very much again, winner of the american book award for in west mill. there can be little doubt that in the united states of america , police forces at

the local, state and federal level have never hesitated to inflict the most brutal forms of punishment and dismemberment upon the american people. as part of this effort to destroy and dismember, degrade, there have been survivors. there have been people who have not only lived through this terror but also contributed to the lives of those who not only survived but also to help understand, to evade this fate. among the many tools of punishment that are the most egregious is the use of solitary confinement. something that to be sure not to be regarded as cruel and unusual punishment and therefore banned by the constitution of the united states . a novel solitary by i'm sorry, not novel.

autobiographical text solitary by albery woodfox with leslie george is a tale of survival but also a tale of joy, perseverance and spiritual revival. the great honor to bring the american book award to albery woodfox and leslie george for this great gift of courage and perseverance they have shared with our world. please welcome albert woodfox . >> hello my name is albert woodfox and i'd like to take this opportunity to thank the foundation for honoring my book solitarywith the american book award . i wrote solitary because i want to explore the horror of solitary confinement as being used in the prison system in

america and around the world. solitary confinement destroys a human being. destroys spirit, dignity and respect. >> it is a great honor to bring this very vital book the american book award this year and again, my thanks to albert woodfox for participating in this afternoon's ceremony and also to leslie george for helping us to bring albert woodfox to you . joining us in a moment, the founder of the before columbus foundation, ishmael reed who will be honoring eleanor w. traylor for

lifetime achievement. it is a great pleasure to welcome ishmael reed to the 41st annual american book awards . >> thank you very much. justin, thank you for all your hard work. i want to talk about eleanor traylor. one of our outstanding literary critics. eleanor traylor is a member of the blackaristocracy . and she could have spent life planning cotillion's and garden parties. but instead she waited into the snake pit of american letters. her point of view arises from her being both an observer and an insider.

of two revolutions of americanliterature . while some of the writing about black arts, leaves much to be desired, doctor traylor has not only written about black hearts is a participant, a confidantof some black arts pioneers . if after years of its being denounced by mainstream critics, black arts is now a trend with large tables devoted to workshops, course adoption, eleanor traylor is responsible because she never lost faith in a movement that changed american literature. you know that black arts has come info because one of those has been criticized of the movement has been short-lived is helping to

finance its revival that is not the onlyrevolution in the arts . in which doctor traylor participated in. she was coeditor by author of the classic soul theaters in an anthology a black woman. which was landmark book which helped launch black feminist criticism. it's heralded with an editor later named and afro-femme view of the world. this worldview emerges as an instability or as an ism. it's explores the surety of

and in the head, in the heart in the gut regionaldiscovery called the self . it tests the desire for longing, the aspirations of the discovered self with and against this possibility to respect, growth movement and accomplishment. by asystole empathy with complementary cells and she talked about giovanni and grant. this voice was echoed throughout the world in a manifesto when i visited china it was obvious that many scholars in chinese universities have been influenced by black american feminism. i heard a student say she read bell looks in the library in egypt and it changed her life. if black feminism has become or has a global outreach,

doctor eleanor traylor isone of those responsible . i mention her name recently in exchange between two individuals who have a power to influence trends in black literature. i challenge the two approaches that are used to define black literature by their publications. a critic wrote that william a has been forgotten, i have photos of his family attending lack renaissance more events throughout his life. another approach is to provide a black writer with a guardian. and in one magazine they wrote rwanda coleman was in to walt whitman. any item 1:. published one the:. she had nothing to do with or had nothing in common with walt whitman. so why does the establishment

find some tokens like myself acceptable while black critics are still in thenegro leagues ? because the few black literature in the context of a black tradition which mainstream critics haveyet to acknowledge . also, their criticism is blessed because the negro leagues were always capable of striking out the majors. doctor eleanor trailer. >>. >> and i'm not sure if eleanor was able to join us this afternoon. here she iswonderful, thank you so much . >> was fabulous. thank you. mister chairman. board of directors, founding juniors of the beforecolumbus foundation . my heart sings to be seen

this most award. i believe in miracles. because two, now 30 have been found in my life. but first is to have been born to a parentage who has modeled gloriously the agonizing and splendid struggle of a great focus of life. the second is to have been born into the generation that founded this award. the third is to receive this. this completely stunning, outrageously generous award in a foundation that embodies the quintessential elementsof that generation . for its poets, this generation was and is not to be understood as a subset of axes. rather it is a distinction all its own as a voice that

destroys horror and brings life to an unlikely place. as john cole train, this generation reflects a molecularly arrangement of sound, syntax, rhythm and expectation. for darnell lee becoming hakeem is to be understood as a renter of clear language, able storytellers, a discoverer of crops and seeds . >> ..

its ultimate song is personified by i am so hip, even my errors are correct. i met the founding genius of this generation when we were younger than young and get already written the game changing work that rerouted the fiction of america perhaps the world. the work regarded as the counter narrative of african-american victimization, and avatar of african-american speculative writing now called afro futurism. it was a future statement column and greed. as many of his generations had gathered at a writers conference call by his brilliant -- doctor

stephen henderson at howard university. after the final session if you would gathered at my house to eat up pot of black-eyed peas of rice and chicken. music had given way to highflying stories. when my angelo arrived, i with her the tallest, launders person on the planet, and equally tall bass instrument, after the shock of amazement it became clear that we were in for a concert treat. just as the chalice undress the instrument and begin to prepare it, i see it to the kitchen to stir the pot of warming peas. i arrived at the stove when i heard a loud squawk followed by a shriek. simultaneously the was a thump as if something fell to the floor.

one hand over mouth, the other over ice in an effort not to make a sound of desperately rolling on the floor imprisoned in sheer glee was the erudite poet who had swung like a pendulum to wardrobe master of paradise, it was he who inspired the unrepeatable before columbus foundation offering the american award, but then he was a helpless, hapless member of what would be called the great generation, rolling on a tiny kitchen floor. we dared not utter a sound, we would be misunderstood. we were not laughing at the cellist or at her rebellious instrument. we were laughing perhaps at

nothing less than the absurdity of the very self. mostly the instrument behaved,, the cellist performed in the concert ended, the founding genius of this moment took charge of serving the families company on that evening to the pleasure of all and the extreme gratitude of one. from the earliest time i knew him until this very moment, his genius was always a healing power. to my fellow awardees who are my better, please accept my heartfelt congratulations. as chairman, board of directors, dear, dear people of the sacred fire, please accept my deepest appreciation.

>> beautiful. thank you so much, eleanor traylor, winner of the lifetime achievement award from the before columbus foundation. this year for the first time the before columbus foundation extends the american book awards into online publishing, bringing our editor award to the panopticon review and to its author and editor, kofi natambu. kofi natambu stands in the tradition of many of the great publishers in african america, including the founders of the chicago defender and the amsterdam news. it is a great pleasure to bring for the first time the editor award to online publishing honoring kofi natambu and his panopticon review. kofi joins us this afternoon as

is audio acceptance speech to today's american book award. >> hello, everyone. congratulations to all my fellow honorees are i would like to personally thank those responsible for sponsoring and sustaining the american book awards, for bestowing this honor and recognition of my work, the panopticon review. it is only people edifying and encouraging to the valley of one's work publicly acknowledge and supported and especially by one's peers. it must almost be acknowledged that the when a compass is anything worth doing alone. so in that spirit in recognition of that essential fact and both my work and my life i would like to share a few names of some individuals, many of whom i've been fortunate enough to actually known and worked with over many years who never failed to inspire me and grading the in fact, what i do and want.

it is not possible to name everyone i would like to personally thank so i trust that those who i i know and valuable are not named here will know and appreciate that i feel deeply valued in and the work as well. so in that spirit in no particular order i would like to especially mention and thank the following individuals for having a significant and powerful ongoing impact on my life and work and especially that of an opticon review and sound projections. they are w.e.b. du bois, -- lorenzo thomas, bob kaufman, johnny williams, gloria house, bob moses, malcolm x, ella baker, paul rosen, frederick douglass, harry tubman, karl

marx, ida b. wells, jayne cortez, jim jordan, ann petry, toni morrison, a monetary, nathaniel mackey, richard white, langston hughes, james baldwin, michelle alexander, adrian kennedy, carl beatty, angela davis, william kelly, robin kelly, frank wilkerson, carol harris, --

[inaudible] vsos he for advancement of -- [inaudible] roscoe mitchell, george lewis, et cetera et al. as well as the entire modern jazz tradition from the so-called mainstream expression of the light from circa 1890 to the present. especially kenny, general baker, mike cameron. finally first last and always i'm a solid and fake a very special person whose love, friendship and support, counsel, compassion, insight, humor, in this generosity i have been and remain happily reliant on for many wonderful years now. i'm very fortunate to not only

be her marital parter but some who also cherishes for exemplary example as as a writer, visual artist, editor in human being who continues to deeply inspire -- to matter what, her name is -- thank you for everything, honey. i know you know this already but it bears repeating nonetheless, i love you with all my heart and soul. and thanks again american book awards for the very important and essential work that you do. >> again, thank you so much to kofi natambu, congratulations for the editor award for the panopticon review. a commune additions is one of the great gifts to our world and certainly one of the most courageous and value of publishers in the united states

today and throughout the world. it is a great harvest of literature that they bring to us and and welcoming vision beyond the ordinary baby talk of the so-called two party system in american politics, far beyond, far beyond the jekyll and hyde conundrum of principal and interest. it is a great pleasure to welcome the founding editors of commune editions, joshua clover and juliana spahr, and again congratulations to commune editions for the publisher award from the american book awards before columbus foundation. joshua clover. >> i want to thank the aba and fake ishmael and also just and for reaching out with such news which is thrilling.

giuliani will talk for a minute when i'm done about this award and before columbus foundation after i say some thank yous. i want to say thanks to the people help us make the book and who helped us -- help us disturb them and offered us their artwork, especially tim simon to did the original design. thanks to the bay area poetry community but also to readers and friends all over the world. we are not sure what this award means except as recognition of all of our authors. so we want most importantly to thank them all, and by all we mean those who wrote books and who wrote chapbooks and wendy who contributed one of each, translated as much as authors, translators who played in equal part in helping us reach me on our own limits, cultural, national, linguistic and others. we want to thank the living and

the dead. not all of our authors are still alive. we are very first chapbook -- by louise michel. she has been dead for more than a century at the time. the incomparable italian revolutionary -- past at 84 last spring. with the honor of publishing his first book of poetry into english. and finally the great poet -- last fall at just 50 years of age. he was a friend and a comrade, and we miss him. we are said he did not live to see that i'll end with his words, the last word from a poem of his called a nursery rhyme. say no justice no peace and then say the police. giuliani has a thing or two to add. >> i did want to add here that

of all the honors in the word of world, the one from before, foundation is one with most want to receive. its history as alternative what for years as amanda white literary prize. its refusal of economy of to enter in many amazing writers that is as a lot over the years come writer set up often overlooked by the establishment. the before columbus foundation had done so much recognize diversity of american literature and community ties and crucial politics and activism, and all of this has been so generous and we're very proud to be recognized by it and really humbled by the company which include so many heroes entering much. >> thank you so much, giuliana and joshua for taking the time to join us this afternoon. coming up in the moment, i'm

molly ortiz was a recipient of the oral literature award this year, the before columbus foundation in the american awards in recent years has expanded to include a category that embraces the performance and theater of poetry as well as oral literature in its non-literate forms, those who perform without the book. in the case of amalia ortiz it is both, playwright, a performer, amalia ortiz most recent work, hannibal cabaret and other songs is part of her performance and we are very honored to present the oral literature award to amalia ortiz who joins us this afternoon. >> i am amalia ortiz and want by

thanking the before columbus foundation for this award and for the ongoing mission of promoting diversity in the publishing world. my hybrid book of poetry which i stage as a punk rock musical tells a story of a refugee arises to beat an army of marshall's book the revolution against an oppressive state. i am not aware of the people i amended to for supporting the book, stay perform system videos and create a project which is larger than one person. there was this a a good through all of the names because this is a community, a family with a whole uninvited crew and so here they are. thanks to -- for saving this book. thanks to my mentor and the texas poet laureate who supported performance as a part

of the nsa beyond the page. also thesis committee member is also to think along with doctor catherine watson who were also awarded and american book awards in 2018 for the anthology of fiction which featured a large excerpt of my cabaret. i need to think the cast of the past and present, daniel lopez, robbie kruse, amanda victoria -- [inaudible] my husband and bass player.

thanks for the national association of latino arts and culture for the grant which allowed me to document the many videos and thanks to pepe garcia for directing that video project. in the late '80s and '90s i can't turn on to the punk spoken word poet patti smith -- i want to thank the early lollapalooza poets for doing spoken word at a time when all i saw were white faces. he showed me there was room in the genre for me added to have to try to sound white to claim it. thanks to other writers who taught me the value of the poetry written in my own community. thanks to those who make -- thank you black and brown punk festival, curator and founder. this work is that simply white dominant punk aesthetic but is

drawn from the call to come my case border culture, border vocabulary and border history. sunday do think graffiti art for laying roots on the border of the main street just two miles or so from the rio grande river. which, , could my life in the bt way possible. the production of this book lays out the abbreviated dissent of my aesthetic screening face for all that i am in academia, chicken x,, punk spoken word poet. thank you for responding to a complete stranger when i reached out for a book. i want to dedicate this award to the memory of the great -- who i feel in my stomach at something to do with the bringing this book to the attention of the

before columbus foundation. last summer my publisher passed on a handwritten letter i would even flattering to receive from any fan but it knocked the wind out of me. his passing the summer was a huge loss to american literature and to his family and his legacy i owe never ending thanks. the dystopia i imagine in this post-apocalyptic book was meant to mourn with the world could become should women marginalized people continue suffering iniquity to larger and larger disproportion. the book began away before the trump presidency and in the year since the election and publishing of the book i have felt dystopia becoming more and more of a reality. as walls continue to close in on the margin, i urge you to vote, rather in solidarity and if all else fails, unite to destroy the

oppressive state which threatens the soul of our democracy. [speaking spanish] once you. >> thank you so much, amalia. and i'd like to encourage our audience to take the time to discover amalia ortiz online. there is a wealth of video presentation throughout the internet that will bring you the power of her extraordinary gift as as a poet, as a performer, as a musician. again, thank you to amalia ortiz, recipient of the oral literature award. and begin to echo the earlier statement, i would encourage all of you to visit us on the

internet at before columbus foundation and encourage you all to give generously to the before columbus foundation. we are certainly grateful for any donations that we can receive and find this at before columbus foundation.com. as we conclude the ceremony annual american book awards, i would like to bring all of our attention to the walter and lillian lowenfels criticism award, which this year is going to "appalachian reckoning" edited by anthony harkins and meredith mccarroll. as a master playwright tom at the late tennessee williams said in his sweet bird of youth, it takes a hillbilly to take down a hillbilly. and in the struggle to bring

some kind of counter valence to the intentions to control the discovery of the culture of appellation coming out of washington, d.c. and the loudmouths in new york, this particular work really does the lion share of that work in eliminating the struggle of the people who actually lived there rather than capitulating to what new york publishers or politicians in washington, d.c. would like as us to believe abt the population there. and so by way of an introduction i will read the words from nancy eisenberg, a past winner of the american book award. in this illuminating and wide-ranging collection, the authors do more than just debunk the simplistic portrayal of white poverty found in "hillbilly elegy." they profoundly engage with the

class, racial, and political reasons behind silicon valley millionaires sudden triumph as the most popular spokesman for what one contributor cleverly calls trouble a share. this book is a powerful corrective to the imperfect stories told of the white working class mountain folk in the elusive american dream. so we're joined this afternoon and acceptance of the criticism award for "appalachian reckoning: a region responds to hillbilly elegy" by its editors anthony harkins and meredith mccall -- meredith mccarroll. >> hello. i am tony harkins. >> and i'm meredith mccarroll. together we co-edited "appalachian reckoning: a region responds to hillbilly elegy." we're honored to accept the walter and lillian lowenfels

criticism award. it's important pushback and challenge simplistic perceptions and the popular notions are not always correct. >> this book was born out of both frustration and a cold. frustration with the way the attention garnered by j. d. vance tabbouleh allergy was yet again simplistic and monolithic vision of the people and the region. and the hope we could provide a space for a more complex and nuanced representation of appellation that recognize that there is no single truth about it. we sought to create a platform for challenging regional stereotypes, forthrightly facing social and economic problems, and exploring what it means to be appalachian in the 21st century. >> there's a broad range of

appellation writers who share this story complicates a narrative story often told about this place. as we read an introduction of the book we note the collection reminds us all that is and always has been space to differ, to disagree, to rage, to reimagine, to commemorate and to reclaim appalachia at its is -- as it is for us. >> this project was a very collective one and we many people we would like to thank. where grateful to the incredible group of nearly 40 contributors whom we see here. who came together for this project and on whose behalf we accept this award. scholars, poets, photographers and writers all contributed to this book in many ways and challenge both the world of the monolithic region and challenges traditional academic boundaries. >> we want to thank emily for her support and an abiding friendship and special shout out

to teresa berg was instrumental in selecting and organizing many of the contributions of the collection and to roger made to look at appalachia entitled project to give voice to our -- the project as a bridge building. >> i want to reflect knowledge to financial and emotional support from history department at western kentucky university and above all to my wife tracy for her support of the project from conception to fruition in countless ways. >> and many thanks to my colleagues at bowdoin college, especially to my family, my partner jeff and our sons for the good humor and energetic support. we're grateful to supporters at west virginia university press, derek, abby, and sarah have all been intimate in getting this book out into the world of

readers. -- reached the broad audience eager for deeper understanding of the region and diversity people and stories of historical, , perseverance and even joy. thanks to the before columbus foundation for finding value in this collection, thanks especially to our readers who took the time to think about this region in a complicated way. >> thank you very much. >> thank you very much, meredith mccarroll and anthony harkins. and thanks again to all of you for joining us this afternoon for the 41st annual american book awards, and i will look forward to seeing you next year. >> and tonight on booktv in prime time matthew claire examines how race and socioeconomic status impact how

defendants are treated in u.s. criminal courts. the authors of congress overwhelmed discussed congresses intimately to legislate. that'll begins tonight at 7 p.m. eastern. visit booktv.org for a complete schedule or consult your program guide. >> here are some of the current best-selling nonfiction books according to the "wall street journal."

>> a reminder that all booktv programs are available to watch online at booktv.org. >> like a new one. i am karen greenberg, , i direct this to our national security at fordham law and welcome to today's event on the book i'm going to show you, "homegrown: isis in america." the four get started today i want to mention some sad news. in the world at the center of national security, my world, frank meade who is a longtime friend, advocate for an adviser to the senate passed away november 1 of this year. we are going to miss him. i wanted to take today to dedicate this program