National Book Foundation

National Book Award.

Long list for the National Book Award for Nonfiction from the National Book Foundation.

Gets funding from the taxpayer, by the way, from the American taxpayer.

There it is.

[upbeat music] This is the Open Book podcast, a behind-the-scenes look at the world of books and publishing through conversations with leaders in the field, hosted by David Steinberger, the CEO of Open Road Integrated Media and chairman of the National Book Foundation.

And now your host, David Steinberger.

[upbeat music] Hi, and welcome.

I'm your host, Traci Thomas, and it is The Stacks Book Club Day.

Natalie Green, the Director of Programs and Partnerships at the National Book Foundation, is back with us to discuss our September book club pick, Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Dantica.

This National Book Award finalist explores Dantika's relationship with her two father figures, her uncle Joseph, who raises her as a child in Haiti, and her father Mira, whom she reunites with in the United States when she's 12 years old, and their impact on her life.

In this episode, we talk about grief, immigration, and the myths we create around the people in our lives.

All right, everybody.

It is the Stacks Book Club Day.

I am joined again by Natalie Green of the National Book Foundation.

Natalie, welcome back to the Stacks.

Isabel has received 15 honorary doctorates and has been inducted into the California Hall of Fame.

She is the recipient of the Penn Center Lifetime Achievement Award, the Annis Field Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award, the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation, and the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm thrilled to welcome the great Isabel Allende.

Isabel Allende

The story follows a young theater director returning to her childhood home after her mother's unexpected death, staging a production of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard for her local community as a way of healing old breaches, reevaluating her relationship with her mother, and weaving a new nontraditional family for herself.

Rachel Pistan's novel, In the Field, based on the life of Nobel Prize-winning geneticist Barbara McClintock, won the inaugural Science and Literature Award from the National Book Foundation in 2022.

She has also published three other novels, Alina, Lady of the Snakes, and This Side of Married.

She is the literary director of Celia Bookshop in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and former chair of Swarthmore's Housing Affordability Task Force.

He is the creator of unforgettable characters and series.

He has co-authored number one bestselling novels with Bill Clinton and Dolly Parton, told the story of his own life in James Patterson by James Patterson, and received an Edgar Award, 10 Emmy Awards, the Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation, and the National Humanities Medal.

Underachiever, dude.

Oh,

Let's let Rachel tell that story and the story of her own relationship with Chekhov and her work as a novelist.

Okay, joining me now is Rachel Paston, who has written several novels, including In the Field, which won the inaugural Science Plus Literature Award from the National Book Foundation.

Rachel's also the literary director of Celia Bookshop in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and she's here today to discuss her new novel, We're So Lucky to Live Here.

Rachel Paston, welcome to the History of Literature.

So I'm... certainly hoping to be invited again.

I do feel like I have a good, yeah, I feel like I have a good relationship with the really amazing folks over at the National Book Foundation's marketing team.

So that's the hope.

I'm also secretly hoping that one of these years it will be my turn to be one of the three chosen to sit at the press table.

However you take notes and get ready, you are probably going to learn something today.

I Ruth Dickey is the executive director of the National Book Foundation and has spent 30 years working at the intersection of community building, writing, and art.

Prior to the National Book Foundation, Ruth led Seattle Arts and Lectures, where she was a 2017 fellow with the National Art Strategies Chief Executive Program and served as a judge in fiction for the 2019 National Book Awards.

Look at that.

The recipient of a Mayor's Arts Award from Washington, D.C., Ruth began her career as a teaching artist, leading poetry workshops in soup kitchens, drop-in centers, and the D.C. public schools.

And then when I returned to work at Hugo House, I, yeah, right away, just, I could see the work that Seattle Arts & Lectures was doing and I became a fan.

I guess, not so afar from afar from Ruth's, but I do remember an AWP conference where we got to speak and just remember being just in awe of the work that she was doing at Seattle Arts and Lectures.

And it was not a surprise to me when she moved over to the National Book Foundation.