Lisa Lucas @likaluca

A quick note on the NBAs and NBF!

Are you digging the Longlists? (We hope so!) 25 judges reviewed over 1700 books DIGITALLY from April to present.

@annadobben made a new system out of whole cloth to change the way we’ve done things since... the 50s?!?

Every file had to be reviewed, renamed, catalogued, delivered simultaneously to each committee of 5.

(No one likes PDFs, everyone was sad, we carried along)

Meanwhile the judges, great sports all, got. it. done. In a pandemic. No publicists (or judges) yelled at me or @annadobben. This is a miracle.

So here we are. 50 books for y’all to read. We didn’t think we could do it.

What we also didn’t think we could do was plan a fully virtual awards show (?!?!?!) in a pandemic.

But here we go! Three design and production teams, tons of donated services, camera kits flying around the country, animations, music, all the things.

But here’s the hook: we don’t have a single sponsor who pays for all of this and the awards are our fundraiser. We usually net 600k for all of our programs year round. But no tickets or tables will be sold...

We ignored this for a while and carried on. We saved a little money. We won’t stop existing. Instead we tripled down on relief and raised 3.5 million dollars with CLMP and the Academy of American Poets to distribute relief to our field.

We also got and distributed MORE books for kids and families in public housing.

But we still don’t have ticket or table sales. Or a gala.

So I hope that while most of this work happens behind the scenes and we aren’t real loud about a gutted budget—you’ll consider making a gift to support @nationalbook. We, as always, promise to use it well.

We work to create ACCESS, to support other orgs, to make sure young people have great books in the home, to bring authors to all kinds of communities, to help people better understand and stop mass incarceration.

So I hope you will consider sending us some bucks. We need em. And we will use em well.

See y’all at 10ET with poetry, 3pm ET with Nonfiction, and tomorrow for fan fave—FICTION!

And PS we didn’t need a CYA statement or an emergency hire to say out loud, with feeling, that Black lives matter.