people. other people seem to about about pie somehow taking the world and destroying the world. well, thank you, everyone. alok is here to sign books and sell books and. people coming the same. thank you. all the books will be available in the back to school name.

well, i would like to invite to the stage my good friend who cares about books just much as i do. and i know we all do in the world we need it the most right now. i'm so glad to be here with you all. love you even if i don't know you. we share this message, love and hope and togetherness and, literary rigor and excellence in thought. in truth. so thank you so much for your work. please welcome to the stage kate mckinnon. hi. you. thank you, john. he's pretty good.

my name's kate. hi. it's nice to but i am a book awards virgin, so be gentle. i'm going to put on these glasses which are fake glasses that i wear to feel smarter because i am the dumbest person in this room. good evening. tonight we come together to celebrate the power of storytelling the way it connects us, challenges us, and transforms us. as we gather in this room, surrounded by some of most talented and visionary authors of our time, we are reminded that books do more than entertain. they illuminate. they provoke. and most importantly, they change. that was written by chat petty.

is that. i didn't know. i was so intimidated. i didn't know what to say at the opening. and i was telling my friend about it and he asked the robot. and that's what the robot said. don't use chatty beauty because i find distasteful and frightening and because i have an iphone seven, a platform that does not even support emojis. in any case. so this is not your mama's book awards going to have some fun tonight? who's drunk when. okay. it really. no, it really is. honor to be here tonight as a sketch comedian, there are a few calls that you wait for. the call to join the cast of saturday night live. the call to thank to play an

outlandish side character in a blockbuster film and course the call to host the national book award award. i set. i told the producers of this event, you know, the high point of my career wearing ryan gosling's genitals as a hat on live tv. i don't know. i have the requisite gravitas to host national book awards. and they said, we know they said they wanted something fun and light. and i said, oh, distract from the fact that the world is a bonfire and we're just toss some more wood on. and they said yes, in a way that suggests that maybe they regretted the call. but i do. i wanted to be here because books do so many things. they inspire. they transfer sports. they kill spiders. when you can't find a shoe, i

was told that this event is like the oscars of books. i said, so what's the budget for my opening number? do i get back up dancers, how many, etc. and said we can provide granola bars for the rehearsal. but john cena is and he will be naked. i i'm kidding. yeah i, i technically did join the literary world this year. i published a middle grade novel that was the most work. thank you. i'm sure you guys have heard this, but it's so much work during your book. i wanted to write a book for young readers because when i was young, books did saved my life. thank you. i was choking on a fig newton and the woman babysitting hit me hard on the back with a copy of

beowulf. and the newton was just lodged. but seriously seriously, i wasn't. i wasn't sure i wanted to write a book. i just knew that i had a like a burning itch to communicate and connect. but that could only be scratch matched by telling a story and sharing it. it is. why do we continue to write books? there are movies. i mean, are there already enough books? people are leaving these things in laundry rooms, you know, and yet and yet we continue because. the world spins on offering us new situations ranging from the tricky to the horrific and i think ultimately we tell stories because want to help a a book is an offering it's a hand the darkness a way of saying i isn't this crazy see and that's

something that a robot will never be able to do because thank you. yes. robots do not know what it's like to be certain you're going to die one day. robots not experience racism, food insecurity. robots do not lose their partners weep over election results or receive a devastating diagnosis, as most of all, robots do not know what it's like to confidently walk up to someone and say, hi, abigail, and only to learn that the person is named suzanne. but we know these things. people know these things. and so until we have solved problems of death and loneliness and their byproducts, war and climate sensitive souls will continue to offer their theses of how to make the most of our fragile and fleeing fleeting time on this burning planet

surrounded other frightened hearts and in that way, writing a book is nothing short of an act of kindness. so please give yourselves a round of applause for your kind impulse. reach out into the darkness darkness. okay, enough. the comedian. we are going to begin tonight with the presentation of the two lifetime achievement given by the national book foundation. the first is the 2024 literary, an award for outstanding service to the american literary community, presented in recognition of the honorees, dedication to expand, ending the audience for books and reading, which is as martha stewart would say, a very good thing. pastor recipients include dr. maya angelou, carolyn reidy, dawn weber, and most recently paul yamazaki of city lights,

booksellers and publishers. tonight's recipient is a lifelong advocate for black and african stories. through his work as a bookseller librarian, instructor, editor and, publisher, here to present the literary in this evening is 2020 lifetime achievement award honoree walter. walter mosley is an award winning of over 60 acclaimed books of fiction, including the upcoming been wrong so long it feels like right as well as works of nonfiction and plays. his work has been translated into 25 languages. it gives me great pleasure to welcome to the stage walter mosley. i didn't know there was going to

be a music. they have it on this thing, but i'm going to read my paper. it says almost exactly the thing, you know, because, you know, i just get the feeling that you get the feeling like when when you come and they say they want to see it so they can, but they just because they can put it up here, so they can read it, that they really want to make sure what you're saying isn't to embarrass anybody. anyway, i recently had occasion to call paul coates, a warrior publisher, the black man who traded the term slave for enslaved the black panther, who was on many a hit list. the man that brought literature into prisons. literature that most people didn't and still don't know exists. paul koch, who virtually bled his own blood to ink his printing presses and who worked shoulder to shoulder with world shattering writers, editors, his own family, and those of us of the diaspora around the world. paul coates, who is still the

only black publisher in america that prints his own books. this because he would not let our truths be bought out from under us or sabotaged. and when i say our truths i'm not just talking about black people, i'm i'm talking about living history that has been erased, eradicated murdered, and then resurrected in the form of zombie lies. paul shares information that every man, woman, and most especially every child in america. and therefore the world must know if they want their souls to survive. paul hodes, who will publish you when he is flesh and when he is penniless. paul, who decides what he will publish based on the quality of the truth of that work? paul coates, a man who believes in you, even if you don't believe in yourself, who believes in you, even if he doesn't like you. these beliefs are grounded in his faith and social evolution, not personal gain. paul coates, the warrior publisher, cannot be bought out

or put out of how many of us can say that? how many people in this room love every minute of self-sacrifice? how many people pile up the debt to off the weightier obligations of? our people? how many can be that serious that political and still find time to laugh and love and keep the faith? paul has lived a life of service. most people in the modern world are confused and befuddled because their hearts and minds are filled with so much missing affirmation that most of us, most of what they see and believe isn't even their, they say, i'm worth so much because my paychecks are so that that one over there must love or hate me because i feel the same for them that the system i serve must be valid. because if that was not, my life would be worthless. paul quote has taught that none of that is true or maybe that most of it is not. he has done so by working side

by side with me, extolling the greatness of others doing similar work who served on the national mall. we served on the national book awards together. we we've published together introduced each various times. i love paul coates. i admire him. but most of all, i respect how he has imbibed the harsh liquor of true citizenship and survived. in other words, his life and work gives hope to anyone who would dare to explore the dark spaces between the lines that demarcate the lives of.

i really don't know who walter was talking about. man. when walter has done introductions before, i'm usually looking for somebody to come in with a cape, you know, because he's talked about superman and i don't i sat there shrinking in my chair. okay but i thank you and i thank everyone tonight for this honor.

i'm going to try this teleprompter. i'm going to try to be braver than walter and i'm going to try do this thing. so me begin with a bunch of thank use. and by acknowledging someone who is here tonight, only in spirit, glenn thomas, son of writers, readers, press. glenn was half insane. and a final take about black book publishing. dan simon, carson charcoal and. i flew to london in 2001 to be with glenn as he became an ancestor. his spirit and his commitment to always move black book publishing higher is ever present, and it's alive in this room tonight. i also want to thank my wonderful wife, who's at the

table with me, rosalyn koch, for always supporting me in my downing times and just being there as love for me. she represents love i. i also love mosley. i mean, i love this guy. we publish we published gone fishing together. 28 years ago. gone fishing and easy rawlins prequel. we came together and became friends and brothers. my journey through life is better because of you. mosley and appreciate you so much. and let me thank the national foundation and its board for this year's celebration and for

the work you do every day to make this world livable for the entire literary community. i thank you for that and for your acknowledgment of me. neal baldwin director, former director of national book foundation brenda greene from the national black writers conference. troy johnson of abc and publishers group u.s., our distributor. thank you, guys being here. linda may your support black plastic press is part of a group of online black book publishers that includes third world press africa world press and justice books. these legacy are surviving offers from the civil rights and human rights battles of the sixties and seventies along with newer like universal right

press, we work every day to, maintain and expand black self narrating voices. we each have different thought we have. we each have a different focus. my focus is resisting black voices that are and confirm the right of black people to advocate and express in a world quick to deny our humanity for black people. our enslavement was what we call the my alphagrea catastrophic event to survive that great disaster, my ancestors had to have stories of something better stories of past and stories of the future which during the apa could only be expressed aspirationally despite penalties, torture and death, those aspirations later their

way into print as stories about ourselves and our view of the world from our perspective of my ancestors understood the power in douglass asking what to the slave is the 4th of july. and so during the douglass asking emphatically, ain't i? woman they cherished the fundamental rights free people everywhere, the right to speak in our own, in our own style, without the permission of others, especially those sought to keep us enslaved or ban our aspiration. since our books and our humanity using self narrating voices in 1827, john russell worm and samuel cornish founded freedom sturm with the declaration we wish to plead our own cause for

too. others have spoken for us. david walker used that voice in 1829 and marcus garvey in 1919. carter woodson captured and used it in 1921 when he formed the associated publishers to publish books written from the perspective of our self narrating voices. malcolm x, martin luther king and fannie lou hamer, we're those voices when they truth told black aspirations, sharing them with, america in the world, it took me a while to figure out, because i am late coming follower that i also am that tradition. my mission is recovery and making black self narrating voices known to the world. i am not an interpret power. i prefer to let those voices speak to new generations

themselves. i obsessively curate those voices, especially the old radical and less popular ones, the more obscure they are, the more important they in my quests. those voices are all black classics to me. i published them knowing that they are critical to fully understanding and making sense of the brightly colored mosaic that is american and world history. if those voices are not present, the result is a draft washed out monotone of history and, a narration where some awful person steps up and insists that slave be was a necessary experience that taught black people many skills. i let that happen. to do this work and to be

supported by my community as i have been since 1972 and to be reckoned that for that work tonight is humbling. it is also a reminder that all voices are important and, that all stories are important. thank you all and. thanks again to the the founding. this incredible. we will tonight's celebrations with the presentation of the 2024 medal for distinguished

contribution to american letters each year. the medals given to a writer who has enriched our shared literary and cultural heritage over the course of their career. previous recipients include tony morrison, isabel allende, art spiegelman, and most recently national humanities medalist, prize winner and national book finalist rita dove. tonight's honoree offered us some of the most significant literature of the 21st century, ranging from fiction poetry to investigative journalism to science writing. here to present the medal this evening is sam stoll of sam stoll office. the president principal of the frances golden literary agency, founded by frances golden in 1977. sam joined agency in 1997 and is a member of the board of directors of the association of american literary agents. gives me great pleasure to welcome sam stoll off.

they didn't tell me when first became a literary agent that this was part of the job description. or i might have chosen a different line of work. we agents are more used to hiding comfortably, and they acknowledgment sections of our author's books rather than up on stage introducing. i owe my place on this stage to barbara kingsolver. of course, but also to golden, the founder of agency. i now head, who some of you, of course, knew when barbara first looking for a literary agent in

the 1980s, back when people still looked for and literary reference books. one listing jumped out at her. it read in part, no racist sex, just a just homophobic or pornographic material considered. and barbara said bingo. that's agent for me. frances was not only a fierce advocate for barbara's work, but something of a jewish mother to barbara and me. and that's the thread that connects us. if she could have been here, would have been compelling. barbara kingsolver. contributions to american letters then have been amazingly far more than i could do justice to. but what i would say all is that barbara has been ahead of her time showing us the way. she was reviving the social novel at, a time when ironic detachment and introspection

were still very much the literary fashion, starting with her first novel, the bean trees, which among other things, the sanctuary movement protecting central americans, political refugees, and later in the majestic the poison wood bible, which skewered the arrogance of american imperial exceptionalism. she was writing fiction about climate before fire was a thing in novels like behavior, which sounded an early alarm about how environmental disasters would devastate human communities in ways we see so clearly now because she trained as a biologist, her writing has always been eyed about the ways humans are embedded in ecosystems, rather than standing apart them. she was advocating for local and seasonal when locavore ism was still a new idea in memoir, she wrote with her family animal vegetable miracle, about the year they spent eating only what could be grown near their home.

she's a writer farmer in the tradition of her fellow kentuckian, wendell berry. she eats from her garden as those of you who follow on instagram have seen, and she knits. wolff that from the sheep that she raises, she writing about the dispossession of rural working long before we all became preoccupied with the regional schisms. our country starting with her very first book holding the line about a copper mine strike in arizona and all of these themes are gathered in her most recent novel, the stunning demon copperhead. although inspired by charles dickens, the original novelist of social protest, the book has as much kinship with mark and demons astonish the original voice barbara has given us the huck finn of our times. she done all this with a warmth

and humor, an uncanny ear for appalachian speech, a wealth of vivid metaphor, and an aphoristic wit that are her trademark. i am glad that the national book foundation calls this a prize for distinct contribution rather than a lifetime. although they also call it that if you look closely at the website, artists are naturally about having their work premature early summed up. but barbara is at the height of her powers and we have so much more to look forward. and with that it is my honor to, on behalf of the national book, the medal for distinguished contribution to american letters to, my dear friend, the great barbara kingsolver.

for. thanks, sam. sorry i made you do that, but you, you. you knocked it out of the park. you all looked so beautiful for for people who usually go to work in sweatpants. or is that just me. this is an honor. i never imagined and will never forget. and i am so grateful.

to all the people that paul had. the gracious gracious presence of mind. thank. i thank them to. the of an award like this as sam implied, is that you've been around for a lifetime. and i have. i've written through crises that seemed unsurvivable to me through administration phones that rose and fell. i've seen totally of the sun. so i know that when everything goes dark, the sun still up there. when i was new to this profession? the credited goal of our was to be perfect and contained and morally disengaged art that made people uncomfortable was likely

to get scolded by critics. i know this from experi ence, but it's all i knew how to do. i come from who aren't in this room, who've never been in a room like this, or in this city. or maybe not in any city, maybe not even very far from where they were born. i write with their hearts in throat. the kinds of stories that i grew up hungry, underpinned with questions about class loss and power and how we got to this place where so many people are left outside hungry and readers it. they lived in that world to booksellers and and my wonderful publisher harpercollins has

always had my back. but there were hedwig and the headwinds were always there. the people that are there to let you know you're not going get in the club. if you talk that much about folk. i have lived long enough to see that change. maybe those critics retire today or, maybe so many writers pulled up their chairs to the table so many of you that we had to get a new table. the rowdy one where we ask the big, scary, uncomfortable questions and stake hearts on the people and the places that really need us. artists get called a lot of dreamy things. we're lighthouses. we're visionaries. we are soothers of the breast.

maybe. but i think. we're at our best when disruptors, when we when we rattle self-absorption. and the lazy belief that my best interests are everybody's best. we get to crack open. what doris lessing called unself. we use our best beautiful tricks to lure people into letting go of themselves for a little so they can look into the soul of another human. because that empathy, my friends, is our salvation as. james baldwin told us. we are still each only hope. the fact of me standing here with you, with with this whole

medal around my neck feels like a miracle to country girl from kentucky in the disguise of a sparkly dress. and i'm so happy. not so much for me, but for all of us. and the seismic shift in the rules of our and who gets to play. i'm proud of the respect. we have finally learned to give in this country to art that engages with the real ruckus of the world. the thrill of that engagement gets me up in the morning and will keep getting me up for the tomorrows. i have, which i'm banking on a good many of them, even on the days when i've been smacked down for the truths i believe in and the people and the places i love. and i'll confess i'm smacked

down at the moment. and maybe you are too. here's what i know. truth and, love have been struck down many times in history before now. truth, because it's often inconvenient and love. because it's fallen. but truth is like gravity and the sun behind, the eclipse. it doesn't matter what rules people make up. it's still there. and love stays alive. if you tend it. our job is to remember what there is to love the people and places that need us to bring them into the room, into the heart of the unacquainted stranger. our job is to invent a better ending than the sorry one we

were given. nobody can take care of everything at once, but it's still worth taking of something because there are so many of us to do it. we're not a erased. we're still here. like gravity, like the sun behind the eclipse. thank you. please welcome david steinberg, chair of the national book foundation's board of directors. good evening. on behalf of the board of

directors of the national book foundation, welcome to the 75th national book awards. so 75 years. okay. where where are my from? hachette. and david, where are you guys? over here. okay, so. so david moved from the u.k. to the u.s. about a year ago. right. so i felt i had to explain him that i in the u.k., 75 years is not that big a deal. right? because like like twinings tea, they started it in 1700 or 1705 or something. so if you're not from the 1700s or the 1600s, you don't that excited. but here in the united states of america, 75 years is a really

big deal. and to get to 75 years, you need a lot help from a lot of people. so i get to say thank you. and i want to start by saying thank you to everybody who's with us, the 800 people who were in the room and the people who are joining us, thousands of them from homes. so thank you. thank you for being here with us. and thank you to all our sponsor serves who make this evening possible. particularly want to thank our platinum sponsor. so the najafi companies you thank you to penguin random house. thank you to our gold sponsor, amazon literary partnership, our silver sponsors, amazon studios, orange and noble, bpg usa, central national guardsman.

thank you. macmillan publishers and simon and schuster thank you. thank you. all. of okay, thank you. also the following for their exceptional jim generosity. karen and donnelly to stephen m and joyce. it hadleigh charitable trust the susan s and kenneth l. wallach, founder asian tell susan that we thanked please can and denver wylie. thank you. and one final thank you i'm going to ask some some of the people in this room to stand up so if you are a national book award honoree past or present that's a finalist along leicester or a national book award winner five under 35, could you please stand right now? thank you.

okay. all right not not done, though. all right. okay she's standing here because. if you are a board member of national book foundation, current or past. yeah, please stand up. all right. and lastly, you are a member, the national book foundation staff, past or present, please join us and stand up. yeah so, yeah, please look around. you are all part of our 75 year history. thank all. all right. got a brief video about the work that we do that work is always guided by our mission which i

think some of you know, i never get tired of reciting. and our mission is to celebrate the best literature published in the united states, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in our culture. thank you, everybody. for the national book award embodies value seldom fully expressed or realized. the value of creative power of self. this is a luminous novel. half of it is literally hardly ever spent searching for the right word to what an event over which one has had no control in first place. and through the intimacy of literature, a craft that appears solitary but needs another for completion. and certainly all frequently it has been the writer, not the

politician who has been the true friend of liberty. books have exalted me and helped me discover more of myself. that is the power of a story well-told on the head of one of the teacher and elementary who told me reading my child and i tried to everything. books are up, books are ideas. our heart books are a place where we can imagine, like our first steps towards like changing the world. they can seem counter histories to stories that were told about us. they are useful in building movements. they are useful and inspiring future generations. they have a transformative power them. the national book foundation brought in people's ideas about. what good literature is, where good come from. they're open to all the books and all the stories and all the writers. the national book foundation is bringing attention to

communities that have been represented in and that of reading is enlarging. our for empathy and hopefully that has real world repercussions is there's no better way to writers, to their audiences as the national book foundation help bridge that gap. so don't have to be in the major cities to an author at the of their talent and they're. it's obvious to me that the national book foundation cares about capturing the totality of the american experience. it doesn't exist everywhere in the literary world and even within the national book foundation, that has been a process. we're seeing that as the juries diversify. so do the nominees and in fact, so does what we learn about the american experience. when you look at all of the books that have been honored by the national book. they have breadth and depth and just the sheer range of titles and genres versus of an

eagerness to look beyond the ordinary and the obvious, to keep pushing the boundaries. it's not just celebrating the books and readers of today, but also the readers of tomorrow. that's a real up in the way the foundation operates to promote and support access to books. those who might not have it, it does kind of fulfill of that early childhood dream of wanting to be a team. this is the team i can claim, and that's the same book. being a part of team book. it just makes you feel like you're not the only one that loves books, that wants to open those books up and learn more. being part of team book is, being part of a community, standing up and cheering from books to say they're powerful and important and critical and essential. for the next 75 years, the national book foundation will keep celebrating the books published in the united will keep bringing and books to readers all over the country.

and we'll keep leaning into how can we most expansively and inclusively think about that work literature or provides us with things that no other art form does. we need readers need books to help lead us, and us and the national book foundation can play a crucial role in all of that hard are coming when we be wanting the voices of who can see alternatives. but the storyteller cannot afford. to forget, you must always be ready to himself or herself to account. it's about making possible for the entire as well as the dispossessed, to experience one's own. ac with is to live over the course of a few pages in the experiences of another and to create a world where we can all be free.

please welcome to the stage ruth dickey, executive director of the national book foundation. an evening everyone can you hear me? good evening, everyone. i love in the video hearing josie jen talk about what it means to them to be part of team book. and as i look around this room tonight, i see so many incredible members team book joined by thousands of readers tuning in online from around the country and around the world. together we are the people who believe the books and who help connect them.

readers of all ages in, all corners of the country. thank you for being part of the best team. as we just ursula kaylor gwynn say so aptly, hard times are coming when we will be wanting the voices writers who can see alternatives as we witness and battle mounting book bans attacks on free expression. we know that hard times are not only, but they are here already and we all and need the perspectives, possibilities, empathy that books can inspire. we must come together to stand up for books for the next 75 years and beyond, and then be we launched a new teacher fellowship, prioritizing states with the most book bands. we've distributed over to new books to young people and families living in public housing. now.

and the past five years. we brought free books and free program events with national book award writers to all 50 states. dc, puerto rico. but we truly cannot do this work without you. so if you believe in the of literature, we need each and every one of you to invest in the future of books and readers. you'll find qr codes on your tables as well as paper envelopes. we'll have collection boxes and stuff at the door. we leave tonight to help collect any physical donations. your support of any amount will help us stand up for books and reach readers all year long. hard times are coming. we you. and books need all of us. so as you make your donations, which i hope you do, i'd love to thank just a few more people.

immense thanks to tonight's host mckinnon for bringing much needed to tonight's celebration and huge thanks. also, our special guest, john baptiste, for the gift of his music. thank you to the national book foundation of directors, book council host, committee and afterparty committee for your time and leadership. i the screens. thank you to the empire state building for helping mark 75 years by lighting up national foundation blue with the many thanks to really useful media partners both on the beautiful video you saw and on tonight's broadcast. thanks to c-span and thanks to our designers chips and jeff. last but not least, thank you to the volunteers and small but mighty staff of the national book foundation and.

and i'm going to tell you all their names because i want them spoken in the room. a huge thanks, ali romero, eileen ng lovett, erika hattori, lee marino, lily santiago, natalie green, meg tansey, megan and ricardo meisel and special extra. thanks to madeleine shelton, our senior manager of awards and honors. and also a huge you to meredith andrews, who after 29 years with the national book foundation, will celebrate her final national book award ceremony on staff this evening. can we give them all around of applause. and now it's my honor to welcome back to the stage, the one and only jon batiste.

don. oh, stop. dream. don stop believing. because you know that our time is coming up. so let's soak up the day. hey and dance the night away.

so with all you've got don't stop. don't stop dreaming. don't stop believing. because you know that our time coming now. let's soak up the day. and dance the night away.

i heard there was secret call that david played in it. please, the lord. but you don't really care. you do. it goes like this for the fifth, the fall in the major. the bafokeng can't in high lawyer lawyer, high level.

and don't stop dreaming. don't stop believing believing. because you know that our time is coming the the so with all you've got, don't stop oh when the same gold in their oh the same go marching in whoa how i

want to be in number let me hear you. hey everybody to your feet.

let me all. yeah. hey. and. thank you. john. but here's where.

i have to say, guys. i'm feeling some things i haven't felt in a while. inspiration and hope. good. and now i have the pleasure kicking off the final chapter of evening's program. hello. the presentation of the 2024 national book awards. you are? okay, so, guys, so not knows this but part of what makes this evening so special is that none of us except for each category's judges know who the winners of the national awards are in advance. no, buddy. earlier today, five judges in each awards made their final decisions. and tonight we will hold our breath in anticipation as the

award winners are announced from the stage by each panel chair, the winners are going to be presented in reverse alphabetical order. that's young people's literature more than translated literature and then poetry. and then nonfiction. and then finally, fiction. the categories in the panel chairs each be introduced by the voice of, a fellow book lover who's helping us celebrate from afar. so first stop. okay, we have the finalists for the 2024 national book award for young people's literature and. that's going to be introduced by the voice of actor, comedian and writer jenny slate. let's go. young people's literature, our eyes to worlds of possibility through fiction, nonfiction, verse. the finalists for the 2024

national book award for young literature teach young readers the importance of preserving history and ancestral memory. the life changing power of self-acceptance and friendship and significance of living in the present moment. these stories serve a reminder that we are all capable, confronting our problems big and, small, and that we each hold the key to freeing ourselves of societal. the panel for this year's national book award for young people's literature is brad lopez, the general manager of children's book world in los angeles, a bookseller for three decades. lopez is an advocate for representation and inclusion in all aspects of the children's book industry. thank you. first, i would like to thank fellow judges at table 72 rose

brock, who to for me, leah johnson and my john for their commitment, passion and throughout this incredibly experience i recollect of insight as authors, educators and booksellers allowed for some profound discussions and consensus building to the criteria that we set for ourselves at the very beginning of this journey. i would also like to thank all of you incredible authors in this room. i've been a bookseller for almost 35 years. i worked the legendary glenn goldman at book soup, which is where i started in los angeles angeles. and for those three decades, i have shared your books you've given the gift of your writing with generation to book lovers. and i've allowed you've allowed readers of all ages to see themselves and each other through your creativity. and it has made my chosen career incredibly fulfilling and impactful my fellow booksellers,

educators, librarians and teachers are on the front line every single day in this country facing termination, facing all sorts horrible situations where they're the joy of their lives, in their careers is being stopped. and it's because of books that we share, the books that share empathy, the books that share joy, the books that share understanding, books that you've written, books that so other wonderful authors have written. the finalist for the national book award for young people's literature, all of these authors did exactly that. they are violet duncan, buffalo dreamer, nancy paulson books and penguin, random house, josh galarza on the greats, the great cool ranch, torito in the sky, henry holding company boy are macmillan publishers aaron and kelley, the first state of being green. willow books, harpercollins

publishers. she first satoshi safadi, karim between g.p. putnam's sons books for young readers. penguin house. angela the unboxing of a black girl page street publishing in this year's national award for young people's literature goes to kareem between cfa so causing suffering. author.

thank you so much. and now salute to asilomar allowed us to thank you to a love for blessing with this dream come true and honoring me with the ability to my dean and omar and beloved prophet muhammad, peace be upon him. i'm thrilled to be here. thank you. national book foundation, young people's literature, judges and involved in making this beautiful event to my fellow nominees. it has been inspiring to read my i read your words along mine, and i pored over your books with great admiration. and thank you to my sister for watching my kids so i can be here. it was not an easy task. there are four of my parents

always believing in me. they from syria to give us a better life and. it was a struggle for with the new culture and language, and they showed us what it looked like to be strong, proud muslims. i wouldn't be who i am without my parents thank you. thank you to my siblings, my in-laws, my family, my for all their continued support. thank you to my husband for being the best life partner, for being a --. i come true for being the reason i'm up here today because i would not be an author without him. thank you. my kids. my biggest inspiration, motivation and the greatest gift from allah i am most proud of being their mother. and i also promised my son i would. this girl, chicago bears. writing is a team effort. thank you to everyone. i'm getting betweens. dream team. my agent, janine lee, who loves getting in from the first read and champions all work with compassion and care. my brilliant editor rooting on

us, who truly infuse this magic in every edit and his insight makes every word and my heart shine and shout out to her. two years ago, she was here with some thoughts i had as. well, she's that awesome. thank you. simon roberts pain. jen lowe. jen kohn, ski, nancy mercado. and every single person penguin young readers who helped get in between to debut in this world and. a special thank you to my publicist sierra for gosden as well as the school library for fiercely advocating for katie and loving this book. thank you to the many wonderful people who have encouraged me along way, and specifically thank you to muslim authors who stepped forward first and paved the way for me. be inspired to follow my dream of writing. i would not have had the bravery of writing my first words if i had not seen muslim books on the shelf. i would never believed i could do it if i had read the words of people before me who showed me what it looks like so often i

saw books where muslims were the villains, and i'm glad i finally got to write a story. where were the heroes getting between started off as a historical fiction narrative, a story about justice about standing up against racism, about being proud of who you are, a story about something that happened eight years ago, but it's not historical fiction anymore, and it does not apply to only that time or only the muslim ban and our work does not stop in 2020. in fact, dehumanization of arabs and islamophobia has been rising than ever in this past year to justify a genocide of the palestinian people. justice justice, justice and freedom is for all people. all of our liberations are together from people in gaza, in sudan, in congo, in syria, in every corner of the world to.

people here in in america and deep within our hearts change starts with each of us. we have to stand together, protest injustice, no matter where it and continue to speak the truth. even when we're afraid of the future. and as one of my favorite picture says, bravery comes shaky hands so be brave and free. palestine. congratulate haitians to the winner of the 2024 nation book award for young people's literature. and now for the finalists for the 2024 national book award for trans lated literature introduced by the voice of director, actor and author ethan hawke. literature and translation is our gateway to the world.

translate it into english from arabic, french, mandarin, chinese and swedish. the finalists for the 2024 national book award for translated grapple with the global rise in book banning explore cultural erasure and resistance of indigenous families and consider the search for truth and stability amidst political unrest in these novels protagonists form cross-cultural friendships and fight to unspeakable violence. the panel chair for this national book award for translated literature is jhumpa lahiri, a bilingual writer and translator whose debut story, interpreter of maladies, was awarded the 2000 pulitzer prize in fiction. good evening.

the game of translation. the stakes of translation and the travail of translation. the hard work of through the boundless space of a book on the other side of the border. go trouble. go out prepared. i cite legendary rosemary waldrop, a poet, translator and co-founder of burning deck press, to remind us of what a risky endeavor a translation is. translation has never been easy, but it has always been. unnecessary. form of resistance to hegemonic forces. it is thanks to translate that literature by means of linguistic migration can freely communicate, circulate and endure. over the past six months we have read books composed in 33

languages, searching stood out portraits of loneliness, the human cost of war and colonial oppression, and a world on the brink of environmental disaster. i would like to salute my fellow panel for the intelligence and range of perspectives they brought to each of our meetings and for the time and energy spent considering these books. our own aji, jennifer croft, carrie lovely and julia sanchez as. we as a group would like to thank ruth dickey and madeline shelton at the national book foundation for steering us through process. we are grateful to the national book foundation for continuing to celebrate contemporary

literature composed in languages than english, and to reward two creative writers together. the author of one book and the translator who transforms it into another. though in case one of the books had two translators. i would just like to acknowledge that. last but not we held in-depth publishers and small presses. for continuing to serve as the main port of entry for translated literature. the united states. as the discourse of closed borders intensifies, those in this country and we applaud their to center foreign titles on their lists and to enable translators to practice their

unique crucial labor. the finalists in this category are. for sakena alisa. the book centers library translated from the by rania abdel rahman and saad hussein. restless books. linnea axelsson. adnan translated from the swedish by saskia vogel, snow penguin, random house. first on mesa, mozilla. the villains dance translated from the french by roland glasser deep, deep vellum publishing. yang taiwan travelog translated

from the mandarin chinese by lynn king gray, wolf press. and summer where the wind calls home. translated from the arabic by larry price, world editions. and the winners of the 2024 national book award in translated literature are, yang swan sea and linking their taiwan travelog.

your show of war was made by genesis was also the horseshoe sort of shanghai evaluation. george old. taiwan so taiwan on the taiwan divining hole didn't hit home

for the yuan then dual to asia in ebay news. you login here on the tonga divining line will be an ac or is a some menial chung da which is to be tinder new york, georgia uses taiwan in naval the whose island torture journal young, which. chin they appear along with his or josh binyon chin. it was it how you ever or should you so avoid taiwan george in the old says you the soldier or shoe shall you just go all the way down thank.

this is what she just said sorry yeah okay. some people me why i write about from 100 years ago. i always tell them writing about the past a means of moving toward the future. more than a century ago, some taiwanese people began making this the assertion taiwan belongs to the taiwanese. today, taiwanese continue to assert this. but now we are addressing to a different audience. before we were saying it to the japanese. now we are saying it to the chinese for more than a century in between. taiwan has never stopped facing the threat invasion from another powerful nation. meanwhile, internal the taiwanese have a complicated relationship to our own national and ethnic identities. some of us still identify as

chinese just as how some of us used to identify as japanese. i consider right in order to the question of what is a taiwanese person. i write about taiwan's past as a step into future and you so much to the national book foundation for recognizing us, which i think we both feel is a recognition for the place that we come from. taiwan. and thank you so much to gray wolf press, especially. especially our editor. igarashi for believing us. thank you so much much.

congratulations to the winners of the 2024 national book award for translated literature. and now for finalists for the 2024 national book award for poetry, introduced by the voice of singer, songwriter, actor and, author janelle monae. poetry helps us make sense. our complex lives illuminating the mundane and untangling the extraordinary. the finalists for the 24 national book for poetry reflect on the inner workings of the human mind and the creation of meaning. ruminate on silence, endurance and the ongoing erasure of palestine and people and contemplate inheritance home and indigenous identity in the

united states. these works investigate the power and shortcomings of contemporary poetry, while simultaneously language as a tool for survival. one that is essential to poets, readers alike. the panel chair for this year's national award for poetry is richard the fifth presidential inaugural poet, u.s. history and the recipe of the 2023 national humanities men. good evening, everyone. when i say delicious as my cuban mother say that, i mean that fiesta. no right. this is such a beautiful evening. it's my first time at this award ceremony, and it's such a beautiful space. and energy.

it's been an amazing privilege, to say the least, to serve as chair and judge and a fantastic journey, really a journey into the essences of the poets that we read. a journey into a very vibrant sea of what poetry is all about, as well as. and very importantly, an unforgettable journey alongside my fellow distinguished judges for, immensely talented, sensitive and insightful poets that have changed my life. let all give each of them our heartfelt. caroline for shane. and if you're here like waving your hand, i haven't seen some of them dying, but just just.

amy masuku. martin martin and rena priest. one of the things that i learned serving as a chair or as a judge, that we have bonded for life, something that is really important us and that another great gift of what the national poetry with the national book foundation does for us there dedicate passion and work coupled with mission of the national book foundation served to uplift poetry's questioning, life affirming and life enriching power. which of course we especially need during these tumultuous. a cliche that has actually come back to life when.

we most need poetry to serve as a constellation to guide us. through our storms of hatred and despair, toward horizons of reconciliation and hope. in the words of june, jordan to the truth is, to become beautiful, to begin to love, value. and that's political in its most profound and way. we were quite impressed. of in many ways, in many respect by the hundreds of collections that we thoughtfully considered and we were especially hard by the incredible breadth and diversity of the many styles and

subjects themes that we encountered. it me to say or to report that without a doubt the state poetry is indeed alive and well. and. thank goodness and thanks to the courageous and encouraging work of the many poets with deliberate it, especially, of course, those that were shortlisted and the finalists of tonight all of whom moved us profoundly and in a very important ways. the finalists for the national book award for poetry. and carson for ron, norma.

new directions published. fannie judah for bracketed ellipses. i know. i feel it with you. for milkweed editions. must read cherry. for mother penguin books. penguin random house dancers for modern poetry. gray wolf press. lena. last too far for something about living. university of akron press. drumroll and. this year's national word for poetry goes to. lena had out.

i don't even need to finish the name. and.

they were right. it's heavy. sorry. thank you. thank you. good evening, everyone and good morning to canada, where it is the 411th day of, the genocide. i was actually thinking of sharing that quote that richard did from of my heroes.

do you and jordan, who talks about loving yourself. to become beautiful, to tell the truth and we are now living in the second november of american funded genocide in palestine. i hope that every one of us can love ourselves enough to stand up and to make it stop. our service is, as writers. our service is needed as human beings in every room, in every space, especially where there is something to risk or there is an opportunity to be. where that courage will really

cost you. that's what's most needed. i don't want to write anything that is a consolation. i don't want to console. i want us to feel just a tiny fraction. a tiny fraction than we do in our deeply comfortable american lives. despite all the pain and suffering that here, too. i want us to feel and be uncomfortable and be disoriented and be angry and get up and that any administration, no matter what letter, has at the end of its name d are whatever that any administration that we pay for should stop funding and arming a genocide in gaza.

my father's name was mousa khalaf. he was born in jerusalem, palestine zion in 1938. he sat me down at five and told me the story of the he couldn't live in anymore. and that story has carried me through my entire life has driven me, has motivated me. i'm proud to stand here today and to accept this honor as a palestinian american on behalf of all the deeply beautiful palestinians that this world has lost. and in honor of all miraculous ones who endure waiting for us, waiting for us to wake up. thank you so much.

congratulations to the winner, the 2024 national book award for poetry. and now for the finalists, the 2024 national book award for nonfiction, introduced by the voice of singer songwriter, actor and author. demi lovato, do nonfiction gives us a roadmap to the past, present, and ultimately more hopeful future. the finalists for the 2024 national book award nonfiction immerses in the lives of human smugglers at the us-mexico border. examine the fracturing of a

progressive church as it seeks to embrace anti-racism and our harmful relationships to bodies, to fatness. these offer a deeply intimate meditation on race, revenge life and death and one family's displacement. the united states, across generations and to integrate the very idea american history and american identity. the panel chair for this year's national book award for nonfiction is tressie mcmillan product, a professor at the university of north carolina, chapel hill and 2020 macarthur fellow. and let's please welcome to the stage nonfiction judge timothy morton in. well, hello, everybody hi. i'm not tressie. i thank for laughing about that.

i my my name is tim and as you can tell from my accent, i'm from texas. thank you for laughing again. so english people start with this america business and we and i think ought to take this opportunity to apologize. but that's the whole point of the thing we call nonfiction, isn't it? no, i don't mean that you have to be from texas to write nonfiction. or that you have to be unapologetic. i mean, sometimes reality doesn't turn out the way we expect and we need witnesses to that we need to figure out our bearings. we need to learn how to feel into a new situation to live with it, to change it. sometimes the reality is stranger than fiction. and in these daunting and turbulent times, we need strong minds and souls to encounter the world as it is to take risks and do what it takes to disclose world to us. no matter what social media

already knows what stuff means. conspiracy theories already know who we are. the whole point of non fiction is to jump into the unknown and with a full heart and to share that online with everyone so that we can make the future be different from the past. the books we chose were uniquely powerful in taking reader on a journey into the real from a close up study of human smuggling that doesn't let up in its exploration of the human desire for freedom too a painfully moving account of a christian community trying to figure out how to work with the inclusion exclusion on the deepest levels from a feminist philosophical in the global competition to dominate discipline and medicalized bodies for profit politics to a book that starts with assassination and ends with an uneasy mercy to a book that evokes another a world of indigenous people existing before and alongside the one we

know too well. being a part of judging this award was so important to me that i took my own books. hell in bookstores now out of the running. it was so good. no, but really, the had no difficulty choosing the actual. we were of one mind throughout the months deliberation, and i'm so touched and grateful to all of them for the journey we went on, i'd like to thank the other full judges from the bottom of my heart. brenda j child. tressie mcmillan cotton. yeah. anon garrett were us and having romulan. thank you for letting me be a part of this. i'm a scholar i don't get out much and i like to see the overlaps between people not the

contrasts and being on this committee was all about overlaps we had so much more in common than stuff that divided us. we are all grateful to the national book awards and in particular to ruth, vicky and madeline shelton for their guidance and wisdom through this. and we were absolutely unanimous in selecting our five finalists, the finalists for the national book award for nonfiction are jason bailey, owen soldiers and kings, survival and hope in the world of human smuggling viking books penguin random house. eliza griswold. circle of hope a reckoning with love power and justice in an american church farrar, straus and giroux macmillan publishers. kate mann on shrinking how to face fat from penguin random house, salmon and rusty knife.

meditations. after an attempted random house penguin. random house. deborah jackson tough a whiskey tender culpa. harpercollins publishers. and the winner is jason de leone.

my my children will be sad to know i didn't get to hug kate mckinnon. that was the. but maybe that's still a possibility, though. oh. oh, oh. if you manifest it. it will come. my editors said you get to write

something in case this happens. and so i went and wrote something and i'm not supposed to even be up but i'm grateful to be up here. thank you to the national book foundation and the judges for putting up here and to my fellow finalists, it's a long list for short listers who've all reminded me that i still have a pretty good bout of imposter syndrome. this book soldiers and kings, was a janky little anthropology school project about a bunch of banged up and beaten up down people who refused give up hope, and it all started. this kid named one roberto paredes chino, who to me, how come no one listens to us? and i wish that he was here because i think he get a kick out of the fact that people are listening to his words now. and this award is for him. jasmine and flaco santos, alma

and marina kingston, papo and everyone there on the migrant road trying to make ends meet and trying to do the right thing while keeping hope alive. thanks to all my peeps of the undocumented migration project. we'll see you in arivaca pretty soon. thanks. the big m family, including my my mother in law barbara for watching the kids right now i want to give a shout out to the wonderland crew who we couldn't have written this book without singing karaoke to imbruglia. so trent, amy, danny and the kids. thank you, mike. whose photos on the front of this book you're brother my other brother jeff vassell. i love you so much. my mom, margaret, who always said, just do what you love and that's all that matters. austin shipman and perla torres, who keep fighting the good fight. kate marshall teach me how to write and to love it. my wonderful therapist, teresa

locascio. this book broke me in half and she reminded me and showed me that that there's a lot of darkness, pain that i've been running from my whole life. and she helped me take myself together and so that i can move forward happily, this world and to not lose of how the past shapes our future. the folks at viking amazing just made this whole thing a paloma ruiz. ruiz. sarah leonard. julia rickard. kate berner. i have helped these folks who just do the work of the book making, which is so important. and i just feel like i want to recognize that this is a team effort, this whole thing so. i was trying to pick up when i was going to pick a press they kept saying don't pick it based on an editor because your editor will probably leave. and i said, well, i wanted to go with viking, partly because i

love john steinbeck, but more importantly because i loved meeting my future editor, emily wunderlich, who is from the very beginning, i was like, i want i want to work with her. i wouldn't here without her trust, guidance, and magic. one of those editors wave over -- manuscripts. i've deep gratitude for my people at brockman for representing me, especially margo beth fleming, who is like. it took 30 seconds for me to be like her in my corner all the time. my first reader, my life fellow curmudgeon, all the things she believed in this book before, it even started. so thank you, margo, for everything. and i got a lot of half baked book ideas about the picture pretty soon again. so it's coming. my brilliant kind, funny, beautiful and patient wife abigail become i love you so much i cannot sum everything that i feel for you i would not be here you from the very beginning. you're my world.

and so i'm glad to be here with you and my. that's. thank you. and last but not least, my two kids, iggy and lorenzo, who are probably watching either lord of the rings or kate mckinnon close encounter skits that they were the most excited about that. and they were like, can you get an autograph or a video? a photo? so i might ask for one more of those things. if you manifested, but i just want to say that like those little those little guys, they inspire me every day and they remind me that i will i refuse to live in a world without and i will not. i will. i will not accept the dystopian american future of unchecked corruption, border walls, misogyny, mass deportations, trans phobia, climate change,

denial and all this other garbage that this incoming wants to propagate and profit from. i will not accept that will not accept that we will not. so i have more hope now than before. and these storytellers that i'm so to be in this room with, i know that you will help us find our way. and so my kids have this band called the war pigs. i play bass in it. i've been i'm pretty lucky to be in this band. they're about to kick me out. once i find a someone who can play bass, but to quote them, they would say. you know what? we need to go read some band books. so let's all go read some band books. so we're going to need them in. the future in these tough times ahead. thank you so much. congratulate ocean's two the winner of the 2024 national book

award for non fiction. and now for the finalists for the 2020, for national book award for fiction, introduced by the voice of golden globe and emmy award winning actor sandra. oh, fiction us to shift our perspective in imagined realities outside of our own. the finalists, the 2024 national book award for fiction introduce us to protagonist us who attempt to outrun the ghosts of their contemplate the martyrdom found in art itself and reclaim their own narrative and humanity directly from the oppressor. text. through reading we see these characters grappling with and mortality and what it means to remain to people in a place that you behind collected in the 2024 finalist critique center and

celebrate the written way. the panel chair for this year's national book awards reflection is lauren groff, a three time national book award finalist for fiction and the author of, most recently, the best alliance. well, hello. i've never this view before. it's spectacular. for so many of us. this has been a hard year now at the end into further darkness, i heard people i love in their despair questioning the worth of reading or writing fiction during times like these. i do understand urge to turn away from pleasure. it feels sinful when one thinks of the suffering of it can feel like escapism. yet i believe art is the refinement of all that is good and noble and worthy inhumanity,

and that denying art denying pleasure is denying the best part of who we are, the divinity that burns like an ember inside each fragile human chest. the narrative drive is what pushed humans out of primordial tredwell and into communities so strong they can protect the vulnerable and fiction as way to combat the truth without staring directly at it. the way we shouldn't stare at the sun during an eclipse or we risk burning our retinas. fiction teaches us all the reasons why we must care for one another. turning from pleasure, from art, from is tantamount to turning from the reasons why we fight more dignity, more equality, more love for other human beings. this world, the 2024 national book awards fiction panel was a feast of love through crises and technological, an apocalyptic

political moments. this jury kept its cool, its generosity and its willingness to remain open to this sometimes forceful opinions of others. we worked beautifully together to make a strong, long list, brilliant shortlist, absolutely radiant winner. thank you to my fellow jamie ford. send your shadow chukwuemeka vanya and reginald mcknight's. one brief note to the final notes. i've been where you are and i want to tell you though that though you may not be able hear me through all the blood counting in your ears right now, i hope you take the knowledge into the world beyond this that every single one of you deserves to win this award. we thank you for giving your gifts to us now the final for the national book award for

fiction emmy awards are straight. norton, w.w. norton and company. they are far smarter. no random house. percival everett jean eames, double jeopardy winner random miranda july, all fours. riverhead penguin. random house. hisham matar. my friends. penguin. random house penguin. random house. and the winner of this year's national book award in fiction is. first of all, everett bridget. brennan for.

if there are a few horses in here, i feel a lot better. i, i want to thank the national foundation and the judges for putting their reputations on the line here. just like kate am not very good

at this. so i did appeal to the the chat jpt and and then i asked the apple intelligence on my phone to improve it. then i gave it a pass to siri and alexa fixed it up and they came up with this now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of the party. though this is no doubt very true. it's a terrible acceptance speech and i apologize. it's just another illustration that artificial intelligence is no substitute for the real thing. and two weeks ago, i was feeling pretty low. and to tell the truth i still feel pretty low. and as i look out this so much

excitement about books i have to say i do feel some hope, but it's important to remember. and so that last line is that hope really is substitute for strategy. james is been nicely in the us and i owe a of thanks to my publisher bill thomas. to my editor leave woodrow. to my sadistic publicist michael goldsmith. and to do everyone at double the and i have to say that i also

some thanks to gray wolf press. and my my editor there for 30 years fiona macrae. and with great affection someone call the mob boss, my agent, melanie jackson jackson, who just tonight asked me, how many hours did you on the new novel. and i have to thank my teenage sons, henry and miles, whose near complete apathy about my career helps me keep things in perspective. and as always, my best friend

and wife, danzy senna. thank you. for. well, you know, that was it that was whole thing. and and i feel personally edified and i think we all just so thank you to everyone who shared it from their mouth and mind and heart tonight especially to john batiste and congrats relations to all the finalists and all the and thank you for all being and let's get back to work.

goodnight. please join us on mezzanine for the after party