A steam to guess. Welcome to the 73rd National Book Awards ceremony. Tonight's host is Padmulakshmi, an Emmy-nominated producer, food expert, television host, and New York Times bestselling author. She is the creator, host, and executive producer of the critically acclaimed Hulu series Taste the Nation, and the host and executive producer of Bravo's two-time Emmy-winning series Top Chef. Please welcome Padmulakshmi. Hi everybody. How's everybody doing? I hope by now you're a couple drinks in, seriously. I want to thank you guys so much. It is my great honor to welcome everyone to the 73rd National Book Awards and to celebrate books together in person again after two years of being virtual. We're all here united by a deep love of narrative, how it shapes who we are, and how we understand the world. When I found my way to writing professionally, it was like most things in my life, through cooking. And I believe that food like books can tell a story by creating a sense memory, capturing a feeling, sharing our identities, and transporting us with the right combination of ingredients right back to our childhoods. Being here tonight in the company of so many amazing storytellers and the people who champion them, I'm struck by the way books can also of course feed us. By sparking new ideas, exposing us to new people and cultures, and expanding our understanding of the world. I wrote to Meadows for Nila, a children's book about three generations of Indian women passing down a beloved family recipe, because I wanted not only brown kids to see characters that look like them, with families who cook like them and speak like them, but also for their peers to better understand them, or perhaps another family living next door. I grew up in an Indian household where if you mistakenly stepped on any book or touched it with your foot, you'd have to stop and touch it to your eyes to undo the disrespect. But today, in schools across the country, books like mine are under attack. According to Penn American, there was an unprecedented wave of book bans in the US this year, spanning 138 school districts in 32 states. Think about it. That encompasses around 4 million American children. The main books targeted discussed LGBTQ plus themes or characters, had protagonists of color, addressed issues of race and racism, or all three. Targeted groups of books have included Fribread, a Native American family story, Dim Sum for everyone, and Tango makes three. The story of two male penguins who formed a pair bond in the Central Park Zoo. I'm happy to have been able to read some of these to my daughter. They're wonderful books. This rise in book banning isn't simply a new form of concerned parents. It's a massive censorship campaign from organizations working with state and local officials to restrict access to books. And it coincides with the passage of the parental rights in education law in Florida, or the Don't Say Gay Law. Yes, boo. Boo is right. There are even bans like Art Spiegelman's graphic novel, Mouse, which recounts the chilling experiences of the author's father during the Holocaust, or even a preemptive ban in a Tennessee school district, where books were sorted into tears based on how much the books focus on LGBTQ characters or storylines. If a book reached here five, according to the sorting guidelines, it was too gay, and the books were pulled, even before any librarian could thumb through them. So it's not just gay penguins that these groups are attacking. It's our first, it's our children's first amendment rights. The protection of free speech and equitable access to information and diverse ideas in the school library are fundamental to education. Deciding what books are in school libraries is the job of librarians, not politicians. Where am I librarians that? It's not the job of politicians who want to continue to whitewash this country. Look, I am a product of the American public school system, and in doing my research for my show Taste the Nation, I realized there was so much about this country, about this country's history that I didn't learn in school, and I should have. I needed to reeducate myself about indigenous history, immigrant history, and structural racism. I don't want my daughter to be shielded from history. I want her to have access to what was missing from my classrooms. I want kids of her generation to learn the truth, and not just the truth that isn't painful. Looking at the truth of our history of who we were and who we are now as a country are the first steps to understanding and reconciling the past sins of our nation. But we can't learn those lessons if we're not even allowed to open those books. This year's nominees embrace conversations about race, immigration, and identity. From Imani Perry's beautiful memoir South to America. Where are you Imani? A journey below the Mason Dixon to understand the soul of a nation, it is a beautiful book. To Jamil Jan Cochized, the haunting of Hajjih, Hothach, and other stories. Where are you Jamil? Jamil is the star of one of the episodes of Taste the Nation. You just haven't seen it yet. And to Roger Rees' collection of poems, Best Barbarian. These books and others by authors here tonight paint a true picture of what it means to be American for all of us. We need books like these to help show us that we belong. We need books like these to have empathy for those around us because they belong to. You see, it's not just about being able to see ourselves represented in these books, which is vital. It's about being able to really see one another as well. That's why the National Book Awards and organizations like the National Book Foundation are so important. They're not just about a sticker on the book cover that'll help sell more. The National Book Awards ensure that books can continue to expand our individual and collective lives and horizons. They're on a mission to celebrate literature, honor diverse creative voices, reach readers across the country and world, and most crucially give a more robust rendition of what it means to be human. I'm so honored to be here with all of you fellow lovers of the written word to celebrate this incredible group of authors and to raise a glass to books. So if you have a glass, please lift it and toast because we are here for the most important of endeavors tonight. Thank you all for being here and now it's time to begin our celebrations.