Referring to concerns new and old, Weber called for the protection of “nonpartisan forms of knowledge” and the continued dialogue between art and science. Weber was introduced by “Hidden Figures” author Margot Lee Shetterly, one of hundreds the foundation has helped support. Foundation for its support of books about the sciences. Honorary medals were given to novelist Isabel Allende and to Doron Weber of the Alfred P. “Parks and Recreation” actor Nick Offerman served as master of ceremonies and soon learned that among the publishing community you’re more likely to get cheers with tributes to reading than with double entendre about “thumb drives.” One popular line: “In an age when our First Amendment rights and truth itself are very much in peril, books remain the ultimate repository of creative ideas and irreplaceable knowledge.”

Many of our lives are under threat by design.” Lauren Groff, a nominee for the story collection “Florida,” said that “In these frightening and fraught times, I had to come into the full certainty that art was meaningful enough for me to devote my heart to it.” Finalist Jamel Brinkley, author of the story collection “A Lucky Man,” told The Associated Press earlier Wednesday that “Our lives vibrate with uncertainty and mystery, with paths precariously taken or not taken, and they are often under threat by one thing or another. Nunez’s novel was chosen from among five fiction works set mostly in the present, and touching with lyricism and intensity upon everything from race and sexuality to climate change. “And tonight how happy I am to feel a part of the world.” “How lucky to have discovered that writing books made the miraculous possible, to be removed from the world and be part of the world at the same time. “I thought it was something I could do alone and hidden, in the privacy of my own room,” she said. And Nunez, author of such previous novels as “Salvation City” and “The Last of Her Kind,” noted in her acceptance speech that she didn’t seek community when she became a writer, but unexpectedly found it. It is a story, in part, of connection and distance. Nunez’s book tells of a woman mourning the death of her literary mentor and of her bond with the dog he left behind.

Sigrid nunez the friend