National Book Awards Week begins next Monday, November 14, with a series of events in New York City leading up to the announcement of the four NBA winners on Wednesday evening.
On Monday at the 5 Under 35 celebration, Karen Bender, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Meg Wolitzer, Jacqueline Woodson and honoree Amity Gaige will introduce five debut fiction writers whose work "promises to make a lasting impression on the literary landscape." The 2016 honorees are Brit Bennett, Yaa Gyasi, Greg Jackson, S. Li and Thomas Pierce. The invitation-only ceremony will be hosted by actor and writer B.J. Novak, and includes brief readings and a panel moderated by Ben Greenman, followed by an after-party.
On Tuesday morning at the Teen Press Conference, 600 New York City middle and high-school students interview this year's NBA finalists in Young People's Literature. YA author Brendan Kiely will host, and National Book Awards executive director Lisa Lucas will be a special guest.
On Tuesday evening at the Finalists Reading, this year's NBA finalists appear together at the New School. The event will be hosted by Isaac Fitzgerald, editor of BuzzFeed Books, and Saeed Jones, BuzzFeed executive editor of culture. The reading will be live-streamed on NewSchool.edu.
And then on Wednesday evening, as previously announced, Larry Wilmore, comedian, writer and former host of the Nightly Show, will host the main NBA ceremony and benefit dinner at Cipriani Wall Street. In addition to the main awards, lifetime achievement awards will be presented to author Robert A. Caro and to Cave Canem, a writing center for African American poets. The ceremony will be streamed live on nationalbook.org, Facebook and Twitter starting at 7:40 p.m., Eastern.
On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, NBA longlisted authors, finalists and winners in all categories will participate in the Miami Book Fair International. See miamibookfair.com for the full schedule.