Thank you very much. I'm stunned, I'm deeply honored, I think it's quite possible tomorrow or sometime before Christmas it will snow in Havana. If I received this award, it is possible.

The sweetest and deepest irony is that this book is the result of my night job, because up till now I've only written scholarly books. I devoted time at night to writing this book. I have a long list of people to thank, first and foremost, my wife, Jane, who made this laurel wreath for me to wear whether or not I received the award because at home I am the winner. I have Jane to thank for so,so many things.

I remember one moment, a deep dark moment, we were in Madrid. I was there on a Fulbright doing research on a book that I think has been read by maybe 500 people on the globe on attitudes towards death and the afterlife in 16th century Spain. But I had no contract for that book, as a matter of fact, I had no contracts at all. I had a very, very thick folder of rejection letters for my first book which I think has been read by maybe 505 people on the globe on the Protestant rejection of Catholic symbols and Catholic ritual.

A month prior to this event in Madrid, on a beautiful park overlooking the western edge of Madrid, which was strewn with broken bottles - I had just received a rejection letter from a press I shall not mention and Jane encouraged me to keep going, keep going and keep going. She said you should keep going and I did and here I am.

I have to thank my three children, John Carlos, Grace, and Bruno, to whom I read this book as I was writing it. Every night I would sit down to write between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00, 3:00 a.m. and then the following night I would read to them what I had written the previous night. They were the best, most honest and most loving critics I have ever had. Whenever they said something wasn't fair, that's not fair to keep us in suspense, I took it very seriously.

I have my agent to thank, Alice Martell, my guardian angel. I have Martha Levin, my editor at Free Press to thank. Rachel Klayman, my editor who helped me shape the manuscript into its present form. I have Sara Schneider, my publicist, to thank for her wonderful work, and all the folks at the Free Press, who have done such a wonderful, wonderful job and have always made me feel as if I'm sitting on top of the world. Now I realize I am. My world, anyway.

I also want to mention something which frames this book and this is not a sweet irony at all, it's actually a very sad irony. Had I written this book in my native land, I would be in prison. As we sit here enjoying this dinner, there is one country on earth, Cuba, which is dead set and has been dead set since 1959 on repressing thought, repressing expression. There is no freedom to write, there is no freedom to read. Everything that the National Book Foundation stands for is negated in Cuba on a daily basis. There are people in Cuba now in prisons that aren't fit for even animals. Their crime? Writing.

There are actually several people who are in prison for establishing libraries. Hard to believe but true, nonetheless. It is these very, very brave men and women that I would like to dedicate this National Book Award to, the people in prison who cannot speak their minds without paying the heaviest price of all. And may it not only snow in Havana some time soon, may they be able to speak freely once and for all. Thank you very much.

Transcript of Jonathan Kirsch's announcement
Carlos Eire's Homepage