scenarios include their share of threats let's hope they do let's hope that humanity finds its way to adapt and cooperate. and if not, i think we can all say don't, don't say that. dr. roubini didn't warn you. thank you. yeah. thank thank you very much. yeah. hope for the best. but prepare us also for the worst. thanks very esteemed guests, welcome to the

73rd national book awards ceremony. tonight's host is lakshmi, an emmy nominated food expert, television and new york times bestselling author. she is the creator, host, executive producer of the critically claimed hulu series taste the nation and the host and executive producer of bravo's two time emmy winning series top chef. please welcome padma lakshmi. hi, everybody ready? how's everybody doing? i hope by you're a couple of drinks in. seriously. i want to thank you guys so much is my great honor to welcome everyone to the 73rd national

book awards and to celebrate books together in person again after two years of being virtual all. we're all here united by a deep love of narrative, howard shapes who we are and how we understand world. when i found my way to writing professionally it was like most things in my life through cooking and believe that food like books can tell story by creating a sense of excuse me, by creating sense memory capturing feeling, sharing our and transporting us with the right combination of ingredients right back to our childhoods. being here tonight, the company of so many amazing young storytellers and the people who championed them, i'm struck the way books can also of course feed us by sparking ideas,

exposing us to new people and cultures, and expanding understanding of the world. i wrote for neela a children's book about three generations of indian women passing down a beloved family recipe because. i wanted not only brown kids see characters that look like them with families who cook like them and speak like them, but also for their peers to better understand them, or perhaps another family living next door. i up in an indian household where if you mistakenly stepped on any book or touched it with your foot, you'd have to stop and, touch it to your eyes to undo the disrespect. but today in schools across the country, books like mine are under attack. according to pen, american. and there was an unprecedented

of book bans in the u.s. this year spanning 138 school districts in 32 states. think about it. that encompasses. around 4 million americans, children. the main books targeted discussed lgbtq plus themes or characters had of color, address issues of race and racism, or all three targeted groups of books included fry bread, a native family story, dim sum for everyone and tango makes three. the of two male penguins who formed a pair bond in the park zoo. i'm happy to have been able to read some of these to my daughter. they're wonderful books. this rise in book banning is isn't simply a new form of concerned parents.

it's a massive censorship campaign from organizations working with state and local officials to restrict access books. and it coincides with the passage of the parental rights in education and law in florida or the don't say gay law. yes. boo boo is right. there are even bans. art spiegelman's graphic novel mouse, which recounts chilling experiences of the authors during the holocaust or. even a preemptive ban in a tennessee school district where schools excuse me, where books were sorted into tears based on how much the focus on lgbtq characters or storylines. so if a book reached year five, according to the sorting guidelines, it was too gay. and the books were pulled even before any librarian could come

through them. so it's not just gay penguins that groups are attacking. it's our first. if our children's first amendment rights, the protection of free speech and equitable access to information and diverse ideas in the school library are. fundamental to education. deciding what books. deciding books are in school libraries. the job of librarians, not politicians. where my librarians at. it's not the job of politicians who want to continue to whitewash country. look, i am a product of the american public school system and in doing research for my taste the nation, i realized there was so much about this

country, about this country's history that i didn't learn in school. and i should have. i needed to reeducate myself about indigenous history immigrant history and structural. i don't want my daughter to be shielded from history. i want to have access to what was missing from my classrooms. i want kids of her generation and to learn the truth and not just the truth that isn't painful. looking at the truth of our history, of who were and who we are as a country are first steps to understand and reconciling the past sins of our nation. but we can't learn those lessons if we're not even allowed to open those books. this year's embrace conversations, race, immigration and identity from. imani perry's beautiful memoir

south to america. where are imani. a journey below the mason-dixon to understand the soul of a nation. it is a beautiful book. to jamiel john, coach the haunting of hajji khattak and other stories. where are you? jamil. jamil is the star of one of the episodes of taste the nation. you just haven't seen it yet? and to roger rees, collection of poems, best barbarian. these books and others by authors here tonight paint a truer picture of what it means to be american for all of us. we need books like these to help show us that we belong. we need books like these to have empathy for those around us

because they belong to you. see, it's not just about being able to see ourselves represented these books, which is vital. it's about being able to really see one another as that's why national book awards and organizations like the national book foundation are so important. they're not just about a sticker on the book that'll help sell more. the national book awards that books can continue to expand our individual and collective lives and horizons. they're a mission to celebrate literature honor. diverse, diverse voices reach readers across the country and world. and, most crucially, give a more robust rendition of what it means to be human. i'm so honored to be here with all of you, fellow lovers of.

the written word to celebrate this incredible group of authors and to raise a to books so you have a glass. please lift. it and toast because we are here for the most important of endeavors tonight. thank you all for being and now it's time begin our celebrations. we begin tonight by the foundation's lifetime achievement honorees. the first of these lifetime achievement awards is the literary and award for outstanding service to american literary community, which is given to a person who has proven a remarkable dedication to the audience for books and reading past recipients include dr.

angelou, mitchell kaplan and, scholastic's, -- robinson. tonight's honoree is exceptional in her service to the literary community and advocating for readers all over the country and here to present the literary. an award is dr. ibram x kendi. dr. kendi. dr. kendi is andrew w mellon, professor in humanities at boston university and the founding director of the university's center for anti-racist research. he's a contributing writer to the atlantic, a cbs news racial justice contributor and the author of many highly acclaimed books, including stamped from the beginning the definitive story of history. the definitive history of racist ideas in america winner of the

national book award for nonfiction in 2020. time magazine, named after kennedy, one of the hundred most influential people in the world and he was awarded a 2021 macarthur fellowship. his two latest books were the instant new york times bestseller, getting tired of reading all your. new york times bestsellers how to raise an anti racist, and the picture book racism. it gives me great to welcome dr. ibram j. kennedy. thank you. thank you so much. it's let me first congratulate lee truly all the finalist for the national book awards. i was here indeed six years ago

and that was one of the most memorable nights of my life. less about what happened to me and more so what i witnessed. i witnessed the late congressman john lewis when, a national book award. and in his victory, he talked about how when he was growing in segregated alabama, he was not allowed to attend and to go to his local and talked about and started tearing about his journey. the journey of a boy who couldn't even go to the library to a man, an icon who won

national book award. i was also with my six month old daughter the time imani and. now she's six years old and recently she came home. she just started grade and expressed that she didn't like first grade. i'm just done with grade and but then a week later she came home excited about being in first grade and we asked her why like why are you so excited now? and she told us it's because she now because she's a first grader. she has the ability to check out books from the library. and and so these are just of the

many reasons why it is such an honor and pleasure for me to present the literary an award to the 10th executive director of the american library, associate jason tracie hall. she tracy is the first black woman to lead the a ella her career of outstanding service to the american literary community is extensive and remarkable before leading the elite she was the cultural director at the joyce foundation. she was the deputy commission chair of chicago's department of cultural and special events, the vice president of strategy and organizational development at

the queens public library, where during her tenure she founded nyc early learning network, the community librarian at the hartford public library, where her work was so influential that the then of hartford, eddie, designated february 13 of tracie hall day. and that's just a small sample. but what i want to bring to your attention is the challenge tracy issued to librarians library professionals and library supporters in june of 2020, when people demonstrating all over this country this was four months after becoming the ala executive director, had called for building a library workforce reflects the diversity of the

nation universal digital access in a much financial commitment to libraries to libraries. and she said through three priorities. let legacy be when say let our legacy be justice, she said. i'm inviting us to explore the construct of the library as both the vehicle and the driver of justice, as both a means to justice and an arbiter who was talking to libraries ends. but really, she was talking to us all. the american literary community in this era of book bending, of the forces of injustice taking the books out of our of tyrants, taking away our right to read as hall instructs all of us let our legacy be justice, the literary

community as a home must be a vehicle and driver of justice. and thank you, tracy, for leading the way and must say thank i was think actually your grandmother, bessie morris andrew scott for leading you where like a young john lewis she couldn't go in segregated that hallowed in her mind and now your mind the library her legacy was justice your ancestors legacy is justice and so i'm delighted to present to you tracy d hall the literary and award front standing service to us the american library literary community.

the. community. the the. come on 103rd street. that's a shout out to that's a shout out to what's.

i want to thank the national book foundation and those who saw something in my work that has resulted in the bestowal of this award. tonight. and i want to thank all my friends and family and those who are coconspirators in this work of justice. those who have come here with tonight. moments like these are not intended to shine a spotlight on one individual, but rather to hold up a mirror that reflects all of the people and places that have contributed to what individual has become tonight is a reflection of two groups of people that have lit a lifelong within me people who long to

read and people fight for the right to read to groups that deserve to be seen and in this moment when the very act of reading something which is a liberatory act an of agency and self-realization is being politicized and weaponized is to the point that contemporary acts of censorship have surpassed that of the mccarthy era and books themselves have become. but one of the central laws of information that we learn in library. the first day is that information wants to be free. so the irony is that in a period when books and reading being scrutinized over 3 million adults in the united states

cannot read above a third grade level. in some urban and rural communities that, figure jumps to as much as two out of five adults. i dedicate this award to my grandmother betsy one of the adults who live with a low literacy who got me my first library card and who and nearly 70 years old walked me to the little yellow library in what that felt like a cathedral to me and would normally measured about everything allow me to check as many books at the two of us could carry for her. someone who had grown up in the segregated south, which meant limited schooling and segregated libraries. none at all for her that her granddaughter could literally grow up in. the library must have been an of

reparation. and i want to thank i want to thank my brother scott who is here tonight. he took up the walk the library when my grandmother no longer could it because of both of them that. i'm standing here tonight. this award goes out to our and grandfathers, our neighbors and our friends and all adults who longed to read and to discover the that comes from navigating world as a reader. and i dedicate this award to my fellow librarians. the tireless librarian, the public librarian, the college librarians, the tribal librarians, the at hpc use the prison librarians who fight for

the right to read every day. and who and resisting censorship efforts have sacrificed their jobs and livelihoods to ensure that reader every reader has a chance to see themselves, as represented on a bookshelf and their lived experiences, validate it, let history show of this period that librarians and the writers who work they protect from being removed or erased were on the front lines in upholding our democracy. and finally i dedicate this award to the ten of thousands library and information professionals and committed staff that make the american library association.

i. it was a scholarship to attend library from l.a. that me to turn my passion for, literacy and information access into a quest that has steered my life. i forever work to pay investment in me forward. inevitably, when tell someone you are a librarian, they comment you must really love to. surely loving reading is a prerequisite. but loving reading not what makes you a librarian what makes one? a librarian is when you begin to truly understand that our democracy depends on people having the opportunity to, think and write and and share their stories openly what one a librarian is.

once you witness the transformation that occurs when someone comes across a book or resource that truly flips on a switch in their lives and changes their lives after that, you want everyone have that same opportunity and you are willing to fight for it. it is a universal truth that one of the real tests liberty is the right to read. please, please stand against this effort to limit access to reading. i invite you to join the american library association and join me in the fight against book bans. remember. free people read freely.

to. the. free. so inspiring the second lifetime achievement award we'll be presenting tonight is the medal for distinguished contribution to american letters. previous winners of this include toni morrison, stephen king and hong kingston. this honor is given to a writer who has over the course of their career grade, enriched our literary heritage through their body of work. tonight's honoree and his work has proven again and again the power of comics and graphic novels.

here to present the is neil gaiman. neil gaiman. neil is the author of numerous new york times bestsellers, including sandman series of graphic novels neverwhere, american gods and the ocean. at the end the lane. his fiction has received a newbery medal, carnegie medal and hugo nebula fantasy and will eisner awards. he is a creator of works of prose poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics and drama. originally from england, he now divides his time between scotland where good omens and anansi boys are filmed in. the united states, where he is a professor in the arts at college. he is a fellow of the royal society of literature. it gives me great pleasure to welcome neil gaiman gaiman.

thank you. i'm not here as arts colleague today. i'm here as art spiegelman friend. art makes art. he makes pictures. he makes words. he combines the visual art with the literary art. and he makes magic. art. studied cartooning at the high

school of art and design in new york city. he became an underground cartoonist joining. the underground comics movement, inspired by and descended from the creators mad magazine. the first thing that i ever read. i would have been about 14, maybe 15. and it was a reprint of a three page autobiographic comic about a jewish mouse who was a holocaust survivor, telling his son a bedtime story about jewish mice and nazi cats. that was the first time i read anything by art and. the first time i noticed that

was the genius artist genius. it's important for you to remember this. he is a mensch, but he's a genius. taught at the school visual arts from. 1979 to 1986. when my schoolfriend jeff notkin had the life that i was convinced i should be having because jeff had somehow gotten out of england, made it all the way to new york, and was being taught by art spiegelman jeff actually wound up an assistant on raw, the amazing comics magazine periodical that art and his wife, the fabulous francoise mouly, were creating at and i

back in would read roar, which was this enormous magazine and inside raw. each issue of raw there would be a tiny little comic or it felt tiny by comparison and was called mouse and it took that initial conceit of jewish mice and nazi cats and it expanded it and it expanded it into the story of art and of art father and of holocaust. i knew it was a work of genius. and because was friends with jeff, i got to meet art and francoise and baby naja and the icra the institute of contemporary arts in london, in

86 and i met art my friend jeff's friend. but over the next ten or 15 years, i became arts friend and francoise, his friend and i watched as art made garbage pail kids and was attacked in the press. i watched as art became a staff artist. the new yorker creating iconic covers that were each of them in themselves story the hasidic, the tax easter bunny, the black missing towers of the 911 issue.

unforgettable issue images, all of which were stories. and i there and watched art get a pulitzer prize for mouse, a special pulitzer because at that point nobody had ever given any big awards to before. nobody knew how. so they had to make a whole new special pulitzer category. and i was in it all on its own. i've no, not now. well i think for well, two decades. he's one of the kindest people i know. he's one of the wisest people i. he is in every way a mensch. he is a new yorker who is a citizen of the world.

he's a maker. comics to redefine and what comics were capable. and how they were perceived. it changed the level of respect that comics got and he's a troublemaker. and today he is still there making today pen america sent a letter out protesting the latest round of book burnings. i was proud to on it. american gods has been banned. but up there first and foremost, making trouble. art spiegelman signature. because mouse is banned a game and a game and game. and if you ask me there's only

one kind of people who really want mouse banned and the same kind of people who didn't want things like mouse to exist back in 1942 either. it's with incredible pleasure that i get to give medal to art spiegelman. thanks, neal, for lending

yourself to this occasion and for so consistently being a good friend as well as a world class black belt storyteller of black because he looks good in black. so thanks to the national book foundation that has done so much to champion literature, but now welcomes me and comics into that category with this medal. milestone in my life. i'm also thankful that i didn't mispronounce milestone as milestone. since i was so terrified about together an acceptance speech for this event and for this august crowd. i even contemplated sending a suicide note instead. but hey, i had writer's block. nothing like a lifetime achievement award to make me feel like my lifetime might be over. so this award is for my

distinguished contribution. american letters and really do feel honored. but what about the pictures. i now know that everyone euphemistically calls them graphic novels. i've even been a father of the graphic novel, but i'm still demanding a blood. for me, comics with an x as into comics words and pictures is a more accurate description of the form. i love. in the future, if we have one. could we say this? an award for american letters plus pictorial science comics to the next together, or at least let's call it an award for american letters and emojis. against all odds, mouths became a block.

it was kind of sui generis. and therefore been rejected by every publisher in town. today, this award makes my a blockbuster yet again. as in what the letting into the great hall of literature. well, there goes the neighborhood neighborhood mouse was never made to teach but me anything. i was just trying to understand how i got onto this planet. two parents who were supposed to be long before i got here. i was not trying to write out outfits for beginners and i confess i was annoyed at first when i got a young adult library award, 13 years of working on a book for adults in their comics were read by millions of adults as well as kids. it's just that most adults were embarrassed to be seen by, well, reading them, you know, that's why they changed it to graphic novels. a a moral panic in the 1950s, but more than half of all comics

publishers out business for causing juvenile delinquent fancy politicians, clergy, teachers and parents collected not because they would someday become as valuable as ts but to protect our children. and they literally threw the books into public bonfires. the more things change. when mouse was pulled from a school curriculum in mcminn county, tennessee, this year, my book became a cause. in today's brilliant, virulent book, burning culture war. and my shrewd marketers on that local school board made mouse shoot up to the top of every bestseller list to alarmed readers around the world. there may have been some good old vestigial anti-semitism involved, but i don't think it was exactly holocaust denial.

as one schoolteacher was at the board meeting even said, i love the holocaust. i love the holocaust, but this is not a book i would teach students. everyone's wanted a kinder, gentler holocaust. teach as well as wanting to control thought and maybe eviscerate trust in public education so the tax money can be diverted toward private and religious schools. there's still a general and shrinking consensus that the holocaust was a bad thing. most of today's attacked books many of them graphic novels deal with queer identities and race issues. now these deals and granular detail with my parents experience as -- in nazi europe, but i think it became a universal symbol for all murderous othering of its fable like animal. so this metal is furthest

anguished contribution. it's not an adjective i associate cartoonists. in fact i'm proud of my medium's bold, vulgar roots its ability to to stir to provoke. sometimes even make people laugh. harvey kurtzman, who neil just evoked. he's the genius who created mad comics as well as. sober antiwar work during the mccarthy era and the korean war. he surely deserved lifetime achievement award for rewiring the way several generations learn to think and question authority. and. if this is a lifetime achievement award, it's got to include my decades working for topps on wacky packages and garbage about kids. as well as my new yorker covers starting in the nineties. they got a generation of readers

in their nineties to cancel their subscriptions. my year culminating this award, has been really sobering. i'd always vowed to not become the elie wiesel of comic books. in fact, in the years after mao's, i would draw myself trying to outrun a £500 mouse, trying to either evade or supersede that. but now i've had try to become a mensch. it's been a long march to turn around and embrace the £500 mouse while fascist storm clouds gather together, gather yet again, all over our frying planet. so i'm even grateful that mao's now have an afterlife as a cautionary retail that it might make readers insist never again in the future, even if the past for all the othered minorities has often been a matter of never again and again and again.

thank you all and see you in the funny papers. but wait, wait. i'm online. but before i get the look, i want to thank my friends and enablers of pantheon at the wylie agency who have always had back and and most, most especially francoise my better half for over 40 years. my love my tech, support and my most astute editor. merci for putting up with me when i find my pizza cutter with a diamond blade. francoise, get half the medal. thank you you.

esteemed guests, please welcome. ruth dickey, executive director of the national book foundation and david steinberger, chairman of board of the national book foundation. thank you so much, padma and hello, everyone. i'm ruth dickey and i have the pleasure of serving as executive director of the national book foundation. thank you. and i'm david steinberger the chair of the board of directors. it's my pleasure to welcome you. the 73rd national book awards. the awards are always incredibly night for those of us who books, but tonight has made extra

special by the fact that we are finally back together in person. the first time since 2019. what a tremendous joy is to be able to gather together in new york city, which has been the home, the national book awards since our start in 1950, while we have missed gathering in person, something so special about the past two years has been celebrating virtually with readers from all around the country and the world to tonight's awards are once again being broadcast live for audiences everywhere. so i'd like to extend a special to viewers at home. we are grateful to you all for being here with us for one of the most exciting nights in literature. you have. we're here tonight not only to celebrate 25 extraordinary books and the writers and translators and to exceptional lifetime achievement honorees, but also

to celebrate that in order for books to find their way the world, it takes a vast community of people who love and believe in them. we celebrate all of you from writers and publishers to agents to editors, to publicists to distributors, to booksellers to book critics to librarian to teachers, to readers. each of you is a critical part of this work. the national book foundation champions books because books need champions. especially these days when books are being challenged in unprocessed edited ways. books need all of us. everyone in this. everyone outside. everyone. and watching at home to build a literary ecosystem in which everyone can see themselves represented and everyone can thrive. tonight is as it should be, a celebration, but it's also a reminder of the work for us all.

we have a lot of work to do with the national book foundation to. we've doubled down on supporting literary arts organizations across the country through the literary arts emergency fund, and we've reached thank you to the fund and we've engaged readers of all ages throughout the nation. 46 states and counting in just a few minutes will be the winners of this year's national awards. i know none of us can wait. but first, we'd like to share a little more about the work that we do. the other 364 days of the year it's been such a privilege this past year and a half, to meet so many colleagues and hear about what the national book foundation means them. and we've tried to capture a taste of that to share with all of you tonight. we'll be back with you after a brief video.

across all our programs, the national book reaches almost 2 million readers a year. i the way that i spoke foundation makes its its business to care about books across the country. there really isn't a rival to it so you're supporting something that is doing work that nobody else is. the national book foundation works in four key areas, awards and honors, which of course the national book awards, but also awards like 535 and our science and literature prize service to the literary field, the literary arts emergency fund, public programing, which national book award honored authors to all corners of the country and education and access, which works to connect young people and with access to books. one of the most exciting ways we do this is through our book rich environments program.

we all types of cultures in our public and section eight in our tax credit committee ities. and this is so inclusive. we've heard it, we've them say that mommy, that looks like me. and that's a big. to make sure the whole country is a book rich environment is the ultimate goal and terms of service to the literary field want to continue to support amazing organizations all over the country and then we want to figure out by our 75th anniversary how we preserve archive and make it accessible to the community. and. the national book awards are biggest driver and biggest

revenue source that make possible work that we do as the national book throughout the whole year. there's been a real momentum over the last six or so years to. make sure that the foundation concerns itself with books every day, everywhere, not confine itself to the nights of the awards ceremony. it was such an incredible honor me to have my book, the kissing bug, as one of the awardees of the science and literature prize this year. because i never actually saw myself as a science writer. the book is so much both about science, about communities and families. i think it opened a door of connection between them and work that helps more people get a chance to feel like. books are a place of belonging for them. for me feels like the most important work that any of us can do. you know, this is what books do, right? they open up these conversations and these points of, connections and intimacy.

there's something fiction that commands you be an empathetic person given. the state of the world right now where, we feel so disconnected and we're at each other's throats and there's so much bitterness. fiction might be one of our only cures. touring with the national book foundation, we met people who the was powerful to them. they read a hell of a book and they read the prophets and they love them, they want to talk about them. what was most profound about traveling, jason, especially when we went to the mississippi delta. we could see on the faces of our audiences how, our books impacted, them. we like to say that the national book award honored books and authors are now all part of team book. it's like they are part of our family. and i think looking forward in the next six years, it's only

going to occupy its title even more strongly than national foundation. i think books are the most important thing that there in this world. it is so to see yourself. it means education. it means. it means understanding your culture. they change lives. books just completely change our lives. the national book accomplishes an extraordinary amount of important work, which makes it

easy for me to do this next part. we need your help. as i remind people every year, when i'm on the stage two nights awards are the single largest source of income for the national book foundation. i'm happy to share that. so far we have raised together our $920,000 towards tonight's goal of 950,000. now, just amazing. thank you on your table, you'll find a qr code. you can easily scan, make a donation online. and if you prefer paper. got you covered. your program contains donation envelope where you can make a donation or pledge. thanks so much considering joining us in support of books we have staff and volunteers circulating room for those in person to collect those envelopes and there will also be collection boxes stationed at the exits tonight. volunteers and staff ready to

help. and for of you watching at home keep an eye out in the chat for a donation link or visit national book dawgs donate. tonight's broadcast is free of charge, but we're hoping that book lovers you will support us with a suggested donation of $50. and while you're getting your donations ready, we'd like to take this opportunity to thank some of the many whose support and hard work helps us do the work of ensuring that books and literature are for everyone. thank you to the alfred sloan foundation. the art for justice fund, a sponsored project of rockefeller philanthropy advisors and partners with the ford foundation, the mellon, the national endowment, the arts, the new york city department of cultural affairs and the new york state council on the arts. we are also enormously grateful for tonight's penguin random house, barnes and noble lindenmayer book publishing papers division of central national guardsmen, amazon

literary partnership. amazon studios. apple books. books-a-million google play books. hachette group. harpercollins publishers. ingram content group. macmillan publisher. news media poetry foundation and scholastic and zibby books. thank for making our work possible. we are so grateful. we are just two years away from a big milestone. the 75th anniversary of the national book awards. in preparation, we've spent the last crafting a strategic plan that culminate in our landmark anniversary, and we are absolutely thrilled to have supporters who believe in us and our big dreams for the future. that's right. we are so grateful to these supporters who have joined us in making significant gifts and multiyear commitments to help us. get to 75. huge thanks to debra wiley, the

susan x and kenneth warlick foundation. karen and marcus dole a to stephen m and joyce tatler, charitable trust. stephen reidy. marianne rn and bruno queensland and. paul and carol steinman, thank. i'd also like to thank some of the folks who have helped make tonight and our return to in-person celebrations so fabulous. a huge thanks to our host committee after our party committee and our book council. many thanks to our longtime incredible design team at chip's and to our collaborators at really useful media who are doing behind the scenes magic production work to bring of you tuning in from home an amazing experience. thank both for helping us always look our best. thanks to all the friends who have helped videos and voiceovers as part of tonight's celebration. i won't spoil the surprises, but you'll be hearing from some very special guests soon.

and of course, most trymaine, thanks to tonight's host padma lakshmi. thank you. yeah let's give them a round of applause. thank for so graciously helping us celebrate books. thanks so much to this year's national book awards. judges who read and read and read in order to select this year's honored authors. the finalists that were celebrating tonight. and a special thank and welcome to judges and past and winners from 2020 and 2021, many of whom are also joining us here in presenting person. we owe endless thanks to our esteemed board directors. it's an honor. serve with all of you. and of course, none of this would be possible. the small but mighty staff of the national book foundation and the leadership of executive director ruth dickey. thank you, ruth. thanks so much, david. i'm so grateful.

get to work with you and our incredible and alongside the amazing of team book. huge thanks to team book two jordan smith, meredith andrews. meg tansey. natalie green. alia. amanda. julianna lee marino. anya clippers. emily lovett. and a special huge thank you to our awards and honors madeline shelton for coordinated and right. for coordinating so many details big and small to make tonight's festivities possible. it is truly astonishing that this team of ten, along with the invaluable support interns, volunteers and program partners on all corners of the country, can accomplish so much. together, we reach over 2 million readers a year through our work. thank you. thank you. thank you. maybe you're here with us tonight because you're an whose work is being honored. maybe you're here because you're

part of a publishing team who work to get an important out into the world. maybe you're tuning in because you work books as a teacher or librarian. and know their power. or maybe you just love books. whatever the reason, i it so moving that books have brought us together. books have a tremendous power to bring people together. and we hope we can count on all of you to come together in of books and in support of the national book foundation to help ensure that books and the connections they create are celebrated and shared for. years to come. congratulations once again, all of tonight's finalists. and now on with the show.

where maybe you have a thing for writers. then i couldn't resist. the national book awards are particularly exciting because until tonight, no one with the five person panel of judges knows the decision, not the foundation board, not its staff, not me, not anybody else. the judges made their final decisions only earlier today. so everyone is hearing it here for the first time in the same time. the winners in each category will be announced by the of each category presented in reverse alphabetical order. these categories are people's literature. trans related literature.

poetry poetry. nonfiction. and fiction. this year we have special guests helping us from afar to introduce each category and the panel. first, we have jimmy fallon, award winner and coauthor of for you with jennifer lopez to introduce the finalists for the. 22 national book award for people's literature and panel chair dr. jewel rhodes. books for young readers. simply put, changed lives. this year's finalist for the national book award for young people's literature explore what it's like for young people and people of all ages to tackle grief, anger and discrimination, whether in a magical realm or

closer to home. through and illustration, these books portray characters on journeys of self-acceptance and self-discovery and some have even changed the course of history. the panel chair for this year's national book award for young people's literature is dr. joel parker rhodes, the award winning author of several books, adults and young people. she's the virginia piper endowed chair in narrative studies professor at arizona state university. so as you may know, i am not general parker rhodes. i am lilliam rivera, a young adult author, a middle aged graphic novelist. all that. but you don't need to know that, because i'm representing jewell parker rhodes, who is in the hotel right now. sick. and so i just to say just a few words about jewell, who was our

leader, our fearless leader. she led with compassion, with generosity, and most importantly, with love. and so i just want to share some of the words that she was meant to say tonight. and i'm really grateful that i'm able to represent her and represent our team and and also just this is one of the most important awards, the young people's literature. that's all i'm. so these are some of the words that jewell wanted to today as, a group together. we all from each other deep our critical understanding, our common humanity and our empathy. we became a circle of friends, a for each other. a loving and thoughtful book who was discussing searching for great books that would leave lasting legacy and impact in our

literature. and i also would love to just add that, yes, we read countless, many books, hundreds of books, but also if you're a creator and you anything these past few years, you've won. because how is it that we are able to even embark this journey with all these obstacles? so i give you all award. okay, so i'm going to these are a thank and please join me in thanking their fellow judges, including also albert talley, who's unable to come today. we love you, becky ali vitali, joseph, megan dicey, go and me. lilliam rivera. the finalists for the 2022 national book award for people's literature are caleb barnhill, the old chris and the algonquin

young readers. workman publishing. so already there's the lesbian guide to catholic school founder and bree harpercollins publishers. tommy smith, derek barnes and award anya, billy victory stand. raising my fists for nathaniel norton young readers. w.w. norton and company and support. so what i hear all my rage raise are bell penguin, random house. lisa maisie chen's last chance. random house books for young readers. penguin random house. this year's national book for young people's people's literature goes to sabotage your

all my rage. and and.

this is not 2 minutes. i'm sorry. i should have given it to my editor, but i didn't think i would need to. thank you so much to the national book foundation and to the judges for this to my fellow finalists and nominees. it has been the honor, a lifetime to read and hear your words. i am the first muslim and pakistani american woman to win this award. in this category. so i must honor my muslim sisters in too many places to count who are fighting for their lives, their autonomy, their

bodies, and their right to live and tell their own stories without fear. so, sisters, may you rise and may you be victorious against oppressors. this feels like like an impossible dream. my grandfather, he was a sharecropper for the fourth grade education. my grandmother was illiterate and my parents came to. america almost exactly 40 years ago to the day and like too many immigrants say, they worked so hard, they worked themselves to bone. so so many of our parents dreams died so that the dreams of my generation could live to my mother and. father. your love and, prayers and sacrifice. have our stories beyond my imagining. but i think. may god bless you.

sorry. i told my dear friend and agent alexander. machinist. about this book while i was actually under contract for a different project. and she she have said, don't you dare. but instead she said it and i will deal with the rest. alexandra, thank you for. believing in me, everyone at penguin, young readers school and library marketing publicity and sales has been incredible, has supported me through like so many blown deadlines including the next one. i'm sorry. thank you. my my wonderful editor and advocate ruta remus, who put great trust in my story, instinct. my publisher, shantanu, one who answers like really dumb questions. my publisher, casey mcintyre, and our fearless leader, jen loja. you are a remarkable and

inspiring team. my greatest love to. my family. tala bazzi nicola yoon, hana karim. renee attia, lauren stefano abby winn, adam silveira and hela who got me through this weirdly difficult with tears. moses hugs and cat videos to my brother omer, who has saved my life more times than i can count and who has taught me everything worth knowing. and i think my my children who are who are here tonight and who have since shared me with these imaginary with such such generosity of spirit. all good things are for you. i'm sorry. i'm alston. oh, my husband. kashi insisted that i tell this story a story of all my rage, even when i was afraid. and for the. the 15 years that it took to write it. he walk with me through the darkest night of. it.

kashi, thank you for all the ben and jerry's. and there was a lot for helping me vanish into the attack for me that that my spirit is stronger than my fear. and for being a witness to my. it is an honor to witness yours. thank you to everyone librarian and educator writer and bookseller who has put my work into the hands of a young person who needs it. and last, my beautiful readers have told me my books make them feel less alone. you, me feel less alone. i have been a misfit and an outcast and lonely and lost. but when i write for you i am none of those things. and i thank you with all my heart for that gift. thank you.

next, we'll have christiane amanpour, chief international anchor. cnn introduced the finalist for the 2022 national book award for trans lead in literature. and chat and panel. chair and goldstein. literature in translation welcomes us to new countries, new worlds and new possibilities. the finalists for the national book award for translated literature was interpreted into english from japanese, norwegian and spanish. these works translation consider

each word, line and phrase to bring us. powerful stories of a country's political history, the horrors, the internet, our shared reality, and the ways in which we converge a not so distant, imagined. the panel chair for this year's national book award for literature is anne goldstein, a former editor at, the new yorker. she is the translator, works by elena ferrante. pierre paolo pasolini, and also morante. she's the editor of the complete works of primo levi in english. she's really quite. thank. thank the national thanks to the national book foundation for inviting me to be a judge for the prize for translated literature. and i would especially like to

thank my fellow nick kazansky, veronica esposito, rohan comey and russell scott valentino for their dedication, knowledge and generosity. it's been a pleasure and an honor work with them. i found both exciting and inspiring to read so many works of translated literature from so many diverse places. in a way, what was most is the fact that these works exist english at all. that in spite of low pay and low recognition translators are working on such a wide variety of books in such a wide variety of language and a wide variety of styles where i enabling all of us in the english speaking world, to enter worlds. we might not otherwise know. well, it's almost a cliché to say that are the forgotten voices literary culture. it's also that they've become more visible recently, thanks in part to prizes. and i think we're all grateful

to the national book foundation for having added or rather revived the prize for translated literature in a way. in a way every work in translation deserves a prize along with its translator. and we should celebrate them all. but given that we had choose the finalists for the national book award for translated literature, our yarn fostered a new name scepter elegy volumes. woops, i'm on the wrong page. i can't read volumes. six and seven. translated four from the norwegian by damien searle's transit books. oh, i see. scholastic. scholastic newcastle sanga kibo go. translated from french by mark pulitzer t archipelago books.

more. monaco ojeda jawbone translated from the spanish by by sarah booker coffee house press. samanta schweblin. seven empty houses translated from the spanish by megan mcdowell. riverhead books. penguin random house and yokota wada scattered all over the earth. translated from the japanese by margaret mix of tiny new directions publishing this year's national book award for translated literature goes to samanta schweblin for seven empty houses. thank. you spanish. now.

a thank you. i'm so honored. i'm mostly a shortstop or a writer, so i'm going to be very short. i was thinking today that there are so many moments in life when words can be very tricky and and even harmful and need to be very careful about this but then someone you from back home and says even if you have dress up tonight make sure you get cold.

keep warm. be happy enjoy it. and then words become a gift and a privilege. so i am here. i am where i am. and am privileged person because of all these who has been delivering this kind of kindness care. and support. all these to me. so i want to say thank you to them. to my beloved. to my family. to some very special teachers that i have had. to some very special friends that i have had to my amazing translator, the meghan, meghan, meghan. yes. to my publishers, their first

publishers, the wonderful published book in spain is in language from the publishing house behind us. this former. two. to my publishers, we were head team and. to the jury and to the national book foundation. thank you. this is crazy. i am not a person to whom words come easy. people often that writers are people who have a way words. but i think there are people who question words, who just trust them and who demand more from them. writers are people who struggle with words. and so translators. i always say that any act of communication is an act of translation.

and i've learned so much from the my writers communicate and the ways that they translate. i'm grateful to samantha for continually demonstrating the power of words have to invoke. i'm also grateful her for trusting me with translating and communicating her work. i'm to the folks at riverhead, laura, gloria, ashley. you know, my my family, my parents, my twin sister, jessie and so many friends back in chile who have taught me a lot about how to read and how to communicate and how to translate. thank you to the national book foundation and to everyone here, to all the readers for their continued curiosity. thank you. and.

all right. how are you guys doing. for a bunch of writers, you're pretty sedate, i must say say. now we have alicia keys, grammy award winning singer and and author of most recently girl on fire to introduce the finalist for the 2022 national book award for poetry.

and canales shared funny does thank you and poetry every word carries weight. this finalist for the national book award poetry examined history's a state sanctioned violence against people, animals and the environment. they contemplate entergy a loss and erasure and depict the many stages of love, lost and aging through reflection and reckoning. poetry reminds us how to make sense of the present and how to hope for a better future. the panel chair for this year's national book award for poetry is kwame dawes, the author of 22 books of poetry and other books of fiction credits, wisdom and essays. he is a george w holmes university professor at the university nebraska and a chancellor of the academy of american poets.

i'm in blood, stepped far that should i wait no more. returning were as tedious as going over. it's not a bloody game, so don't worry about it. it's a great pleasure. to be representing representing on behalf of the four brilliant, accomplished, sensitive and informed poets that served with me in selecting the winner of this year's book award for poetry, jan o'neil keats, you go just good. get your clippers as.

my divine. and when felipe herrera. who unfortunately was not able to make it but his spirit, was definitely with us today. we diligently read through and thought about and spoke about and meditated over a few hundred of poetry to bring us to tonight's. so i want to take a moment to thank profusely for their kindness, generous spirits as they carried out this great service, american poetry. so first, i want to say i congratulate the long list and all the other people who had books submitted and they impressed us greatly. the finalist for the 2022

national book award for poetry are alison adele hedgecock. and that's her book. look at this blue coffee press. are the publishers. john king. for his book punks new and selected poems published by the song cave. sharon owens owens. for her collection, published by alfred knopf and penguin random house. and roger rees. for his book best buy, published by w.w.

norton and company. and jenny g. for book the ruptured tense, published by gray wolf press. the winner of the 73rd national book award, poetry is john keene for his collection of poems.

i'm actually crying. i am in shock. hmm. hmm. hmm. so i put together some some notes because i said in the improbable instance that i actually received this award, all the words i with words right. would fly right out my head. so i want to begin by thanking the national book foundation and the amazing jury me, the judges, all of my fellow long listers

and short list. they are all the amazing poets and all the poets who submitted work this year. they all deserve a round of applause. going to offer some thanks. i want thank begin by thanking also my partner curtis allen who's here who's been with me on this entire journey. i love you and many thanks to my parents. my mother, who encouraged me as a reader, a writer, a creative person. many thanks to. my publisher. the song cave and my editors. allen felsenthal and ben estes, who took a leap with collection, took me many, many years to get this book into print and i think i was doing a reading in brooklyn and allen was there and he said, can i see the book?

and i said, i don't have to have a book. i have just a little chapbook. and he send me the manuscript and rest is history. thanks also to my agent joanna strauss and let me thank the alvin of trust, which allowed us to use one of his stunning photographs on the cover. many people comment on the cover of this book and have picked it up just because it's a cover. so thank you, alvin balter balter. for. thanks also to the late cynthia gray, cindy law and her parents for allowing our collaboration to appear in this book. it was very to me that this book include this collaborate nations. i felt like they were a vital part of my portrait making experience. so i'm glad that cindy's is in here, too. many thanks to my brilliant students at and colleagues at rutgers university, which is one of the best places to work. on. a million thanks to the darkroom

collective, who was my first literary family, and through the amazing cover column. and many thanks to all of my dear friends out there, everywhere for their love, their critical guidance, their wisdom and support. i want to dedicate this award to all the readers out and to my ancestors on whose shoulders i stand. ancestors lineage and association, including several generations of writers, particularly the black gay, queer and trans writers. especially those whom we lost to hiv, aids in the 1980s and 1990s. i had the pleasure of hearing

and meeting some of these writers, and let me just say they were brilliant. they were fierce. they were original. they were daring. they were courageous. and their voices not only captured the world they were living in, but envisioned a better one. let's return to their words and the words of so many vital writers and artists we may have forgotten. lastly i urge you to support libraries and librarians many from this along those lines. support workers in the publishing industry and every. support writers speak up and face political and oppression. support the people fighting for a equitable and equal, fair, less brutal, less violent, less cruel country and globe.

support fighting for social, political, economic justice. and yes i'm going to say it. yes, we need people who are fighting for social, political and economic justice. support the people fighting to address climate change and its devastating effects on our planet. it's causing crises all over the globe and sometimes it's easy to look away. and, you know, it directly affects us. but please, people fighting to address climate change and support those who are fighting for our common future. never forget the role. and as we that literature plays in this struggle and i'm going to with two lines by robert hayden, one of my favorite poets. what did i know?

what did i know of? love's austere and lonely offices. thank you. and and. next, america ferrara, actor, producer, director and author of american like me, joins us to introduce the. for the 2022 national book award for nonfiction and panel chair oscar. nonfiction is expanse of it can be memoir. investigative biographical historical or like the 2022 finalist for the national award for nonfiction genre bending

work that defies categorization. this year's finalists the potential and limitations of modern science examine politics and identity and illuminate a family's magical ancestry. all to enrich our understanding of one another and the world around. us. the panel chair for this year's national book award for nonfiction is oscar villalon, the managing editor at xyz of a and former book editor at the san francisco chronicle. yes. good evening. i look so severe in that photo. i just want to say what an honor it is to be on the stage representing the nonfiction award committee. it is a such a privilege to be around such a thoughtful of

readers and thinkers. i can't thank them enough for their work. so let me just think right now, carol anderson? melissa febos for hanson. yes, please. janet webster jones. you know, besides, you know, having this wonderful opportunity to read all these incredible works of nonfiction this year, we end up coming this project as strangers. and i think i could say we came out of it as friends. so thank you so much to the national book foundation for that added benefit. so without further ado, the finalists for the 22 national book award for nonfiction are meghan o'rourke the invisible. three reimagining of chronic illness publishers, riverhead books, random house, imani

perry, south america a journey below the to understand the soul of the nation. elko, harpercollins publishers. david breathless. the scientific race to defeat a deadly virus. simon schuster. ingrid contreras. the man with the files. a memoir. penguin. random house. and robert samuels and tolu ronnie pearl. his name is george floyd. one man's life and the struggle for racial justice. viking books. penguin. random house and this year's national award excuse me, national book award for goes to imani perry imani perry.

louis. a bama has a national book award. all right. i want to begin by thanking the people who made this book possible. my community at eko, a especially sarah caitlin,

miriam, my wonderful agent, tanya, princeton's department, african-american studies, the lyceum agency, sky blue media and the publishing professionals i have worked with throughout my career. all have been integral to this moment. also want to honor my fellow finalist, everyone who wrote a righteous purpose and a stunning pen. wonderful books. and of course, i offer my deep gratitude to the national book foundation. anne and the judges. and from the moment of my birth, thank you to nita garner. holy teresa perry. brilliant. stephen s whitman. righteous. i am sweetly indebted and deeply bound to my family and friends from birmingham, boston. philly, chicago, milwaukee georgia. tennessee. los angeles new orleans. and always mississippi. the land of the bluest blues. you know how much i adore y'all. as i have remained steadfast in moments of disappointment, my

integrity grace be my familiar in this moment of recognition, the artist and the intellectual is obligated to be. i promise that i will to bear witness to the best of my ability. i write my people. i write because we are children of the scarred, rope, choked bullet, ridden, desecrated are still here standing. i write for the holler, the shout, the growl, the the signer and the signified. i write for this. sinned against and the sanctifying. i write for the who clean the toilets and till the soil and walk the picket lines for the hungry, the cage, the disregarded, the holding on i write for you. i write because i love sentence and i love freedom more. for piney woods, live oaks and cypress trees. red clay, black earth. cotton, kudzu and spanish moss, pecans, papayas and peaches. the prettiest day break the chatting blue jays, the dancing

lightning, the decaying magnolia. i write for my children in freeman, diallo, perry, rab, loved and isa garner rab loved who are the very best of me and the most beautiful young men that ever were, and for their entire generation, and who deserve so much better than what we've them. may they succeed where we have failed. my grandmother need a gardener perry holy used to say you weren't born to live on flower beds of ease. these are not times we may write in solitude, but we labor in solidarity. community is never easy, but absolutely necessary. let us meet the challenges of a broken world together, making intercessions with love unbound and hard without end. i say amen. i mean.

one more to go. that's it. finally, to present the finalists for the 2022 national book award for fiction and panel chair. ben fountain is and co-founder of artist books. keanu reeves. fiction is more than escapist. it can be a mirror, a door a call to action. sometimes i was at the same time

a finalist for the national book award for fiction following the lives housing complex residents, black american artists abroad and a young queer immigrant from the great recession. spanning the globe from modern day afghan instead to suburban long island, these characters chase after authentic community and their stories serve as a reminder that we are all personally and searching for freedom. the panel chair for this year's national book award for fiction is ben fountain, the author of billy lynn's long halftime walk, a 2012 finalist for the national award. thank you, kiani. i look forward to meeting you someday. tracie hall and art spiegelman

after listening to your my heart was full to bursting and they made me think of my father. he was an educator of the old school and the thing he would do when he arrived at a college campus was go see the head librarian and say whatever you need, tell me and we will get it for you. so to libraries, librarians everywhere everywhere. he didn't think very much of comic books. however so sorry, art. here are the basic facts of this year's fiction award. five judges, five months, 463 books judging the national book award for fiction this year was a challenging job by any measure, and i want to thank and commend my fine fellow judges

for their excellent work. they are brandon hobson of las cruces new mexico. pam houston of creed, colorado. dana of los angeles. california. and michelle malone. zo phenix, arizona. these judges are as fine group as i've ever worked with. you brought to the job the high standards of diligence, thoughtfulness and seriousness in approach to every book with the kind of open mind and, generosity of spirit that all writers hope their work will be judged with.

has been a genuine pleasure and honor to work you. i also want to thank your spouses in own wife, sharon, for putting with four or five or ten or 12 deliveries from ups federal express per day for having several rooms in the house that look like the overstock warehouse for books-a-million, for being patient. when books turned up in the laundry under, the sofa cushions among the boxes of, cereal or pretty much anywhere else you can imagine a book wandering off two, four, five months. our were basically taken over by books and if at times we were a bit weary or found ourselves sliding into a full blown freak out, those times were more than made up for by the discoveries. the pleasure of encountering a novel or short story connection collection by first time author that absolutely knocked us flat or. a new work by an established writer that the freshest kind of

inventiveness and curiosity. so let me anybody within the sound of my voice. if ruth dickey ever calls you up and ask you to be a judge for, the national book awards say yes. i. i haven't regretted it for a second, and neither will you. so we started with hundred and 63 books and now we are down five extraordinary finalists. three of these are debut authors. another author is being honored for what is only his second book. and finalist has been a powerful force in american letters ever since her first book in the 1970s. the final for the 2022 national book award in fiction. r tess gunty for the rabbit hutch.

published by alfred knopf, penguin random house. gail for the bird catcher. published by beacon press. jameel john ii. for the haunting of haji hotel and other stories published by viking books. penguin random house. sarah thangam matthews. for all this could be different. published by viking books. penguin. random and alejandro rose varela for the town.

babylon. published. astra house of astra publishing. house. this year's national book award for fiction goes to tess gunty for the rabbit hutch. i was so that there was no way

this could happen. i did not prepare a speech. but the one thing i did do was read my fellow short listings and i first want to thank them for putting their work out into the world. i've been thinking a lot about sharon, old said yesterday about how we've been preparing to put forth action for the good. and that's why we have to be afraid and. when i think about everyone else, this list, that's what each of those books accomplished. as different as may be, they attended to those who are structurally neglected. and the humanized experience is that are not visible normally. so i want to thank them for putting their books into the world and everyone helped them do that. i also want to thank my team, my agent duvall who was here from the beginning.

for her brilliance and her courage. and thank you to my editor, john freeman of canada. and thank you to everyone at nats and the national book foundation for putting this night together. i truly believe that attention is the most sacred resource we have to spend on this planet and books are perhaps one of the last places we spend this resource freely and where it means the most. and so everyone here tonight, thank you for everything you've done to put books out into the world and to promote justice and i think kindness wins. i think that's the the point of this evening love wins. you so much.

i want to congratulate all of the winners and the finalists of the 2022 national book awards. thank. thank you all so much to. all the winners, the judges, the the finalists, the viewers. the world. the national book awards wouldn't be possible without the wonderful support of readers everywhere. i hope join me for a dance at the after party. good night and thank you very much for having me.

ladies and gentlemen, it's great pleasure to welcome you to. the session on the politics of climate change. we have