By: Michael Cader
Finalist for the NBA fiction award for TEMPLE FOLK Aaliyah Bilal indicated to the NYT “that a number of finalists planned to take the stage at the end of the [awards] ceremony” on Wednesday night “as one person read the statement. In framing the call for a cease-fire, she said, she and other writers wanted to demonstrate their sensitivity to losses on all sides.” Bilal says: “It was very important, as we were constructing it, that we were clear that we are sensitive to all of the antisemitism going on in this moment. We don’t want to contribute to inflaming that.” […]