Robert caro has appeared on q a and is also appeared through the National Book festival in september. House of stone, you remembered that Anthony Shadid died in syria while covering syria for the Washington Post. His wife will be here representing him and that is not a lottery. Katherine boo has been nominated in the nonfiction category, behind a beautiful forevers about a slum in mumbai india and finally Anne Applebaum has been nominated for iron curtain. That book is just out and she is scheduled to appear under q a and show in december, so you will be able to see her as well and robert caro will be interviewing those others as we go and we will be watching the red carpet here as some of the authors have their pictures taken that right now we want to talk to the chairman of the National Book foundation and this is david steinberger. David steinberger is the head of the Perseus Book Group. If you would, tell us for those who dont know what is the National Book award . The National Book awards are given to the best marketing books in four categories every year so fiction, nonfiction, poetry and literature. Its the pantheon, the greatest american authors, saul bellow, john updike so its a pretty good big deal to win this award. This began 63 years ago . Do you know the history when it began or why it began . M it was a group of people who are interested in making sure that great looks have the greatest possible impact on the culture and that is still our mission now. The first winner was the man with the golden arm which was later made into a film starring frank sinatra. Mr. Steinberger recently the New York Times there was an article about the National Book awards and some of the changes that you as chairman and your team are trying to implement. What are some of those changes . Part of it was trying to make towards as exciting as possible. We have red carpet back here in an after party at you can believe it and a dj and actually a wait list for the after party which is a homely thing. It is really about trying to increase the impact of great books on the culture and we couldnt be more excited. Can any book been nominated in those four categories . Any book written by an american. It can be nominated in those categories in the publisher has to nominate them. We have over 1000 books nominated this year. David steinberger you are saw the head of the Perseus Book Group. Explained that the Perseus Book Group is. We are the leading independent publisher and United States when you include the books they publish in the books we distribute and in fact a couple of our distributed authors, authors published by small independent publishers and we distribute our finalist today including dave eggers. What are some of the imprints that come under perseus . Basic books which is not for history and science and books that make you think and Public Affairs which is not for politics and current events. This would be two examples. David steinberger is chair of the National Book foundation and head of the perseus group. We appreciate your time this evening at the National Book awards. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] we continue our live coverage from the 63rd annual National Book awards here in new york city. This is one of the nominated books, the boy kings of texas, mmr, Domingo Martinez is the other. Mr. Martinez joins us here on the red carpet. If you would, this is a story, this is your story. Is that correct . Is primarily my story but also the story of my family. I go back one generation more and discuss my grandmothers mythology and how she came over to america and how ultimately it was her coming cross from mexico into america that spawned this fantastic firstgeneration american story or goes the mr. Martinez you were raised in brownsville texas, right on the border. What was brownsville like during her childhood . That then, i experience it is being racially polarized, kind of in a more economic sort of striations and the brownsville imail was very agriculturally based. My parents ran a trucking business and we were basically farm laborers and so it was a very conflicted experience, because we would go to school and pretend like we were wealthier than we were, and it was entirely different, the people who we really were and we would go home and live this untraditional lifestyle as farm laborers, my brother and myself primarily. My sisters had a very different experience but ultimately that was what we knew and what landers said about our environment. Within the family, what were some of the dynamics . My father was, he was mexicanamerican. My mother was europeanamerican and so that kind of created a very, sort of a complicated household. They had a lot of children right away in the late 60s, early 70s. I dont know if this was traditional to most, you know, hispanic or American Families that my sisters were kind of the property of my mother and my brother and myself for the property of my dad. As boys, working with the father who wants a trucking company, we were sort of like the indentured laborers for him. My sisters were living this almost idyllic lifestyle as princesses. And so, that is kind of the intentions i draw from early on in the book. How much your family still alive and what do they think of the book, the boy kings . Every member of my family is still alive. My grandmother and while the story is tough and gritty, they have actually been supported. My mother and my father havent really kind of come to terms with it. They find the stories too painful to relive. But they are still very supportive. They now see the book is a larger text. They see it more a sort of a historical document affecting a lot of people because it is. It has left quite an impression, for every person that feels uncomfortable with the context of the story, there are thousands more who for the first time are feeling heard and seen and witnessed. Is it being published in spanish as well . I believe so. My agent is working on those rights, or we have been and we were discussing that when the National Book awards came up so it was kind of interrupted in the conversation. Well comments published by a smaller press, lyons press, correct . What was your reaction when he found that you had been nominated . First of all they had to translate what it actually meant to me because it was so outside my experience. This is my very first book and every other person im up against is like has won a pulitzer or with the wall street journal or newsday etc. And up until six months ago i was managing a print shop in seattle. So it was kind of, kind of a shock to the system. And you know the term dark horse gets used quite a bit regarding my chances here but it was an incredible shift towards the positive. Its nice to have these dramatic shifts for the better in your life. When something this big happens its usually for the negative but this time it was very much for the positive. What is brownsville like today . It is, my experience with it when i went back, it was like someone took do you still have family there . My father still lives in my grandmother. Ive made the trip down sort of just to get the blessings both literally and figuratively, and it was different because the house that we grew up in is no longer there. Grandmas house is still intact. It still as creepy as ever, and but there was like a sense of peace there any more. Its like she is very much living in her late stages of life and much more calm as a human being. The rest of the town though, it was much more it wasnt sort of returning to the scene of the crime or return of the prodigal son. It was kind of day, sort of slipping through and trying to witness the places that it really was anymore, and there was a detail there that i hadnt seen before. Sort of a concentration of communities and houses. The the same momandpop stores and restaurants, and the town, the town is almost mythical in a sense. It doesnt change and get it keeps evolving. I developed a renewed fondness for it when i went back, i think because i change so much and i didnt feel as powerless as they did when i lived there. I went there with a sense of certainly not return of the concrete hero but more of i certainly have come to terms and understand what this place is like. Here is the memoir, the boy kings of texas, the author Domingo Martinez and he is a finalist for the National Book awards, nonfiction author. Thanks for joining us here on the red carpet. Thank you for having me. What is 12 . We publish no more than 12 books a year, generally when book a month. The ideas mostly bestsellers. What are some of the books you have published the sierra . In september we published mortality by Christopher Hitchens. We got great reviews, a lot of covers for the media and we have been named on several lives including barnes noble, amazon, publishers we lay, hudson booksellers and i hope more to come in the next couple of weeks. What else have you published this year . In october we published a book called the oneworld schoolhouse by the con academy which lays out his radical views of education in america, this marriage of traditional classrooms with Digital Technology and has been employing them in a way that flipped our traditional model of education. In by the way salmon khan appeared on our after Words Program so if he wants to watch that author on booktv. Org just type in his name. A long history between 12 and Christopher Hitchens. We published christopher in 2007. Is the second but we published and number one New York Times bestseller. After that book we published his first memoir, hitch 22 followed last september by a collection called arguably. Which also went to be a bestseller. Under extreme circumstances, he was very ill at the time. We had hoped to publish a book, and longer book about his illness and ultimately we collected many of the pieces that he wrote for vanity fair. Greg carter wrote an introduction for the book and is widow carol blue wrote a beautiful afterwards piece. You will be at the Miami Book Fair next week, november 17 and 18th along with carol blue and art name is, right . Thats going to be an interesting panel, martin and christopher nail each other for a long time and Carolyn Martin are very close. My relationship with christopher really dates back to god is not great, as my career blossomed and his career as a writer blossoms so i have a memory as it concerns the greater hitchens project. Booktv will be covering that panel life and in fact we will be talking with carol blue, Christopher Hitchens widow after the panel ayres and we will be doing, taking tweets and Facebook Comments for carol blue and you can go to facebook. Com booktv and like booktv and you can join the conversation as well or you can tweet in a question for her at twitter. Com booktv. Cary goldstein and the nominees this year for 12 . Noma 90s for 12 its an incredible book though. I was very excited to see it rise to the top and i think it will be tough for the judges. Christopher was very fond of saying that he in fact grew up together and he would say that the launch of his network coincided with his arrival and my being here as an ambassador would have meant a lot to him. Of course Christopher Hitchens you can type that in to the cspan archives are booktv archives and hundreds of pro programs will come in. We have done an indepth with christopher programs. Cary goldstein is the publisher of 12. Thank you thank you so much. Backed to the red carpet here at the National Book awards, 63rd annual. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] joining us here at the National Book awards is wellknown reviewer and critic for usa today. Im going to get you over here. You are in a better light. I dont need to worry about that. How important are the National Book awards . Well, in the book world, its very important but not quite as important as the pulitzers. They are second to the pulitzers the most prestigious award, and obviously they are trying to make them more sort of cultural phenomenon along the lines of the book awards, the fiction awards of britain. Have you read any of the finalists and do you comment on the finalists . Well, i did ive always believed in this is a strange thing betting is legal in britain and bookies set odds on the book awards and we have nothing like that. I thought we should just to try to make books part of the popular culture. My two predictions and im guessing because the judges are fight people. Each people have five judges. Anyway so i predict that kevin powers who is written a novel set in iraq, yellow bird will plan in the fiction category and holds dam boy stem by robert caro has been on cspan many times, the passage of power might win nonfiction but maybe katherine boos book may be also a favorite. Who knows . And the reporter who covers the book industry, how would you describe the health of publishing today . I think the Book Businesses is one of those businesses that always feels beleaguered and maybe it has a little more reason to feel beleaguered because of the digital revolution. I wouldnt say it is ailing. I wouldnt say its the greatest so somewhere in between there. Is the kind of thing i dont really worry about that much. I still think there a lot of good books coming out and i think readers have a great deal to choose from. The big question is how many big publishers will there be and how much more consolidation will there be . Is a huge world even beyond new york. There are thousands of publishers who seemed the fee finding niches in the print book in the digital age. I think i read this years was the first year that you books outsold hardbacks . In certain categories. There is no real asterisk there. Ebooks outsold hardcovers but if you combine paperbacks and hardcovers, brand outsold e. Ebooks impact are making in popular fiction, books that tend to be more disposable. 50 shades of gray, thriller . Those types of books may be somewhere around one third or more of the copies sold and they are also cheaper. People dont want to keep those. Serious nonfiction brought a tear still have the home in the print world but this question is what is it mean for bookstores especially independent bookstores . What are you currently reading . I am always stumped by that because im reading several things. I am reading sort an unusual of an unusual book. Im going to interview the National Editor of the New York Times who has written a primer on thanksgiving. I describe it as sort of elements of style but not about punctuation or how to cook a turkey. I am also reading im about to go to nashville. Ive been brushing up on works. Bob mintz and heimer of usa today, thank you for joining us on booktv. Thank you. Someone whose face he may not recognize but its an issue here her voice, you will know exactly who she is. This is kerry gross of npr. What he doing at the National Book awards . Im presenting the literary and awards. The New York Times is an extraordinary job at the sunday book review and the booker view by jenna maslin. Is that the war on what you want a couple of years ago . Yes i did. How many books do you do on fresh air . A lot. We usually do several a week and ive read so many books every year. For me than a our times is really valuable because it alerts me to so many books that i might not have paid attention to without their flagging it. There are so many books that we look at all the time on our show and sometimes it is helpful to have someone if you didnt notice at the first time around. I love reading book reviews. I read so many books that i love to see what other people have to say about the books that im reading now work that im about to read or i just read. I like to compare my thoughts in the reviewers thoughts. Have you ever been turned down by an author . Some authors dont do interviews but usually if others are willing to do interviews they are willing to come on our show i am proud to say. Terry gross if you go back and interview an author who may be dead, is there one in your head that comes up . Lets see, i would be very happy to interview if i had the chance. What are you currently reading for pleasure . I dont read for pleasure in the sense that i am always reading something for the show. So, but i havent started my next book yet so right now im reading the New York Times. When can we expect another book from you . Maybe never. I will tell you writing a book, you dont need me to tell you this. Writing a book is so difficult that i dont know if i will ever do it again. Even though the book was a book of interviews edited for the page along with an introductory essay by me and i worked with a collaborator who is a dear friend of mine and still a was so hard. To do a book on the daily show, i dont recommend it. Terry gross of npr, we appreciate your time this evening. Thank you so much thank you so much. You are a reader of the Washington Post using her column. This is Anne Applebaum in this is her most recent book iron curtain in 1944 to 1956. She is also the one of the pulitzer for Anne Applebaum you are a finalist this year. With your thoughts about that . I was surprised. Its not the most popular kind of subject but i was very please. Why do you say its not the most popular subject . Eastern europe after the war . Is kind of a black hole actually in european history. Very few people know very much about i