At the National Book Critics Circle Awards, held at the New School in New York City on March 16, the upbeat crowd celebrated the winners of this year’s literary prizes. Coming after news about plans to defund the NEH and NEA, many speakers and attendees had defiant attitudes. Many used their acceptance speeches to highlight personal connections to immigration or to call for resistance to the new administration’s policies. Novelist Margaret Atwood, winner of the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, likened being a critic to donating blood: “You give blood so it will be there when it’s needed. You are part of the barrier against authoritarian control. Keep at your craft.”