EVERYTHING SAD IS UNTRUE won the Printz Medal!

Okay I’ve had a minute to take it in, and dance w/my family. But I stayed up last night wondering what would I do with the 15 seconds of attention I'm so grateful to have. I wrote this thread. Hear me out if you would:

It is unfathomable (to me) that a refugee who showed up to this amazing country unable to understand the language would win literary prizes 31 years later.

But it happened! MOM, IT HAPPENED! And glory glory what do I say to you reading this, right now, with my heart overflowing? I don't know, but it was all freely given, so there’s nothing to do but freely give.

Can we try that? As it says in my book, "King or Queen Reader," can we try something together? I figure this is my best week of sales, and an author makes about a dollar per book. So what if we tracked the Bookscan sales for this entire week?

For every book you buy this week, I'll give my dollar to @Heifer a nonprofit that fights global hunger by giving livestock so that impoverished families can create sustainable livelihoods for themselves.

So if you can, and if you like, check in with your local bookstore. Or mine, @astoriabookshop

https://www.astoriabookshop.com/?searchtype=keyword&qs=everything+sad+is+untrue&qs_file=&q=h.tviewer&using_sb=status&qsb=keyword

Or hit up the buy buttons here: https://www.danielnayeri.com/everythingsadisuntrue

(Sidenote: Do ALL the wonderful authors you heard about today a favor and check out their titles too)

I picked Heifer International in honor of Mr. Sheep Sheep, my flock-of-one in my short-lived and imaginary shepherding career. In any case, thank you. This week, we can share our joy with some other kid out there, whose sheep will change his life.

That's it from me. Still can't believe I won. Thank you to everyone who made me a guest in the parlor of their mind, and let me read to them my family story. I hope it will be useful to you, in the way that beautiful stories can be useful, to help us understand reality.

And I've said it elsewhere, but I'll say it here, I hope I get to cook for you, reader, someday, at the #WelcomeEverybody dinners my wife and I used to host before the pandemic. Things will get better, and we'll eat together, and you can tell me your stories in turn.

That's it from me. Congratulations to ALL the honorees this morning, and anyone who managed to launch a book this year, and much love.