[applause] this next award goes to rob nixon. >> i should point out actually that mr. on who wrote this extraordinary work actually intended to be here, but harvard told us that they told him but didn't. in other words, they led us on for a while and said oh yeah don't worry about it. we have got it and then i spoke with rob nixon about a week ago and he said no, no one got in touch with me. so, sometimes, maybe lawrence summers got in there. they fired him though, right? [laughter] now, one of the most extraordinary books to emerge over the last year are a collection of short stories, "american masculine" from shann ray. to be sure, in the west, in the united states, there's a tremendous amount of the inner life that rarely makes its way onto the pages of works of fiction, characters often hard to beguiling and complex to find their full relief or to be held close and this book is truly an exception to that. mr. ray holds a ph.d. in psychology from the university of alberta. his work has appeared in mcsweeney's magazine, story quarterly and other publications now i sho

i'd like to welcome rob nixon.pplause] [laughter] >> this next award goes to rob nixon. >> i should point out, actually, that mr. nixon, who wrote this extraordinary work, actually intended to be here, but i was going to drop dime on him. harvard told us that they told him but didn't. in other words, they just sort of led us on for a while. they said, oh, yeah, don't worry about it before columbus, we got it. then i spoke with rob nixon about a week ago. he said, no, they never got in touch with me. i really wanted to be there. so sometimes it was that play too -- maybe lawrence summers got in there. [laughter] they fired him though, right? now, one of the most extraordinary books to emerge over the last year, a collection of short stories, "american masculine" from chand ray. now, to be sure in the in the united states there's a tremendous amount of the inner life that rarely makes its way onto the pages of works of fiction. carcharacters often far too beguiling or complex to be held close, and this book is truly

robbed us of this moment. the whole thing got us thinking of richard nixon.rt of a new documentary. and it turns out behind the scenes the old man was pretty much the guy we remember for temporarily destrog oying our fh in the presidency. warm, tactile he was not. shakes hands with boy scouts as if they're lepers. kissinger in a bathing suit, confounded by the beach chair. in the film, hr halderman a walk how to china. pictures of opulent bathrooms, film of the pope they secretly recorded because secret recordings were their thing after all. and we get to see nixon rehearsing his phone call with the crew of apolo 11 because he didn't want to screw up in front of a billion listeners. a big development for all of us who love sleeping at staff meetings but hate when our heads lop over. well problem solved. thanks to this discreet bracket that no one will know you are wearing. it allows you to take a snap while upright which we didn't think was possible prior to the first debate in denver. this was harrowing, a girl in a zoo in france and a lion with one thing on