Tananarive Due wins the LA Times Book award

[richardmurray]

 

 

 

[richardmurray]

Tananarive Due speech transcript, not perfect

 

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Thank you so much to the LA times
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the other nominees were incredible
to say this this is an honor is an understatement
back in 2014 I got a phone call from the florida state attorney's office
And learned that my great uncle robert stevens died in 1937 at a notorious - school for boys, a reformatory in florida
and after attending a meeting there with my father freedom rider john - due jr I knew I had to write about robert stevens
but i also knew that my story would need a different ending , and ghost
The novel took me seven years, to write, thank you so much to my husband Steven Barnes, I love you so much, also a great writer, for keeping me on the path, my editor-, my agent donald- , my father for helping me manage the jim crow judge's chamber, my sister joanna- , and my late mother patricia - due, for her courage as a civil rights activist. 
If I didn't know what should happen next in my book I just had to ask what would mom had done. There are countless robert- stevens in the world. And too few of them get a happy ending. so as we face the horrors in our world, in our cities, in gaza and elsewhere. And where there's true life racism , homophobia , islamaphobia, and antisemiticsm, let us honor the courage of young people as the primary creators of change throughout history and the lesson my mother taught me , activism takes many many forms, as the late octavia a butler said, the only lasting truth is change.
thank you very much

[richardmurray]

@Troy you reading anything from tananarive due?