Reading is crucial, speaker stresses
The National Book Foundation exists to “celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of great writing,” according to its website. But as to what great writing is, executive director Lisa Lucas isn’t sure there’s one definition. “I don’t think anyone has the answer to that question,” Lucas says.
Lucas, 36, was tapped last year to head the foundation, created in 1988 to give out the National Book Award, which has been presented annually since 1950. Tonight, she will lecture on the intersection of literature and communities at Orlando’s Lowndes Shakespeare Center. The event is presented by local literary series Functionally Literate in partnership with Winter With the Writers at Rollins College.
The characteristics of what qualifies as “literature” are impossible to pinpoint for several reasons, according to Lucas. “Great writing is constantly evolving,” says the New York native. For example, “a great work of African-American fiction in 1948 never would have been given the same value as it is today.”
The former publisher of online arts magazine Guernica, Lucas’ personal mission could be described as building bridges. “I think we have some work to do in terms of not condescending to readers of popular fiction,” she says.
The annual National Book Award is decided by a panel of five experts and professionals in the field of writing and handed out in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people’s literature. Past winners include Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man,” “Gravity’s Rainbow” by Thomas Pynchon and “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker.
Lucas points to the panel system as being one way in which the winners are kept diverse. “The panel changes every year,” she says. “My job is to identify people who are doing great work … and put them together — five different voices that can work in concert to speak in one voice using their own criteria” for the best book.
The award, she says, is just another way to get people excited about reading. “For us, it’s about creating as many entry points as possible into ... the reading life,” she says, including “making sure the award ceremony is watchable, that you can livestream it, that you can go into your local bookstore and recognize that medallion and get excited.”
Touring the country and meeting with schools, libraries and organizations about reading, Lucas admits that she’s “always preaching to the choir.” But during the past year she has been very excited to see “so many more people than you would ever guess care about books and reading.”
One community Lucas sees as vital in building new readers is writers.
“Writers are our best readers,” she says. Lucas applauds efforts to encourage local authors by outfits such as Orlando’s Burrow Press, which produces Functionally Literate. “The more voices that are nurtured … the more beautifully vibrant and diverse our next generation of writers will become.”
Lisa Lucas takes the stage at 8:15 p.m. tonight. Admission is free. Details: burrowpress.com.