LeVar Burton Will Now Host The National Book Awards

The world truthfully wants extra of iconic actor and literacy advocate LeVar Burton, and can get simply that through the National Book Awards’ 74th award ceremony.

Though in the present day’s announcement of Burton internet hosting is slicing it a bit near the November fifteenth date for the black-tie ceremony. The scrambling is due to a final minute dropping of Drew Barrymore for scabby habits. Though Barrymore went again on her determination to run her present through the WGA and SAG strikes, the National Book Award Foundation had already rescinded their invitation for her to host.

The selection of Burton makes numerous sense — greater than Barrymore, even. While Burton got here to fame starring in reveals like Roots and Star Trek, he’s additionally promoted literacy by means of the long-running Reading Rainbow, the latest documentary The Right to Read, by main Banned Books Week because the honorary chair, and thru different anti-book banning efforts. He even hosted the National Book Awards earlier than in 2019.

The govt director of the National Book Foundation Ruth Dickey stated, “This year, more than ever before, books are at risk. We are tremendously proud to have a champion like Burton celebrate authors, translators and readers everywhere as the host of the 2023 National Book Awards.”

Click right here for an inventory of this 12 months’s National Book Award Finalists. And right here for a glance again on the historical past of the awards.

Find extra information and tales of curiosity from the e-book world in Breaking in Books.