Palestinian American poet Lena Khalaf Tuffaha called on writers to use the power of words and their platforms to demand an end to the genocide in Gaza as she accepted the National Book Award Wednesday for her poetry collection about Palestine, “Something About Living.”

Lena Khalaf Tuffaha: “I want us to feel and be uncomfortable and be disoriented and be angry and get up and demand that any administration, no matter what letter it has at the end of its name — D, R, whatever — that any administration, that we pay for, should stop funding and arming a genocide in Gaza.”