For the first time this year, the star-studded ceremony of the United States’ National Book Awards will air on Facebook Live, giving fans a chance to see authors and stars take the stage.
Actress Cynthia Nixon will host the event on Nov. 15 in New York. The black-tie ceremony and benefit dinner is open to only a select audience, so the addition of a live broadcast will likely please many curious book-lovers.
Among highlights of the ceremony, actress Anne Hathaway is to present a lifetime achievement award to author Annie Proulx, while former U.S. president Bill Clinton will present another lifetime achievement award to the head of Scholastic, Dick Robinson.
According to further details supplied by the LA Times, when the event breaks for dinner, online viewers will be able to view finalists reading from their shortlisted books, using footage from an event set to take place in New York a day earlier.
After that, winners will be presented in the categories of Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction and Young People’s Literature.
Fiction finalists this year are Elliot Ackerman (“Dark at the Crossing”), Lisa Ko (“The Leavers”), Min Jin Lee (“Pachinko”), Carmen Maria Machado (“Her Body and Other Parties: Stories”) and Jesmyn Ward (“Sing, Unburied, Sing”).
Tune in to the ceremony via the Facebook page of the National Book Foundation starting at 7:20 p.m. EST on Nov. 15. JB
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