Would you say the prize is equal parts mission driven and talent driven?

Talent is still important—it’s primarily about the book—but we’re one of the most mission-based literary awards. We’re the only literary prize in the country that awards and recognizes authors who write for the purpose of helping others—to reframe their mindsets around a better understanding of the world and build tolerance.

How does our new political environment, where everything is so polarized, affect the work you do?

It’s both become more important and more difficult that we get these books into people’s hands. Events help our ripple effect and, since we don’t get federal or state funding, we feel free to say the things that need to be said in public. We had an event last month at the Brooklyn Public Library on the erasure of Black history featuring last year’s nonfiction winner, Victor Luckerson, who wrote a thick book on the Tulsa race riots, for example.

How do you see the role of the prize in this moment?

In the solitude of a book, we find ourselves a little more willing to be vulnerable to having our mindset challenged. As an organization, we can have an impact not only on the writers we recognize but on the readers who pick up the books that we honor. Through that lens, there’s an opportunity to increase enlightenment and empathy, which hopefully can lead to justice and peace.