The National Book Awards are tonight at 8 pm Eastern time. The event, hosted by LeVar Burton, will be streamed live on YouTube and Facebook. Ahead of the event, two sponsors have withdrawn their participation after learning that some of the awardees would likely address the war in Gaza. The National Book Foundation released a statement: “Political statements, if made, are by no means unprecedented in the history of the National Book Awards, or indeed any awards ceremony. We are working with the venue to ensure a safe environment for all our guests. We of course hope that everyone attending the National Book Awards, in person or tuning in online, comes in a spirit of understanding, compassion, and humanity.”
Also this evening, Nicholas Dames and Christine Smallwood will appear at an even at the n+1 office to discuss Dames’s new book, The Chapter.
For Vulture, Emma Alpern profiles Lexi Freiman, whose new novel, The Book of Ayn was published yesterday. Freiman tells Alpern how she got inspired to write about a quai-cancelled
Ayn Rand fan: “ I had written this satire about identity politics, and I was like, What can I do next to really seal my fate? I thought, Oh, everybody hates Ayn Rand. I should take a look.”
In Commonweal magazine, Sam Adler-Bell writes about George Scialabba: “Assessing the mixed blessings of modernity is an abiding aspiration of Scialabba’s work.”