Winfrey gave a speech about the impact of books at the 74th National Book Awards and Benefit Dinner in New York City.

Oprah Winfrey is revealing how the late Dr. Maya Angelou’s book helped her deal with the 𝓈ℯ𝓍ual abuse she faced as a child.

Speaking at the 74th National Book Awards and Benefit Dinner in New York City, Winfrey gave a speech and mentioned Angelou’s 1969 book, I Know Why Caged Birds Sing, which helped her He “expresses his pain and suffering”. confusion.”

“This year, the nonprofit First Book found that just six months after a variety of books were added to classroom libraries, classroom reading time increased by four hours,” Winfrey said at Cipriani Wall Street. every week.” “I was 15 years old, when I read my first compilation book, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, and the world left me.”

The former talk show host added that it was the first book she had read as a 15-year-old that had a Black protagonist. “That book gave a voice to my silences, my secrets,” Winfrey said. “It gave words to my pain and my confusion of being raped at nine years old.”

Winfrey went on to explain that before reading the book she “didn’t know that there was a language, there were words for what had happened to me or that any other human being on earth had experienced it,” adding, “That’s the power of books.”

The National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner has existed as a celebration of the best writers in the U.S. since its founding in 1950. The event offers cash awards, medals and other prizes to finalists and winners, which are selected by a team of 25 writers, translators, critics, librarians and booksellers, per the ceremony’s official website.

For its 2023 iteration, LeVar Burton was tapped as the award show’s host, with Winfrey serving as a special guest. Stars such as Matthew McConaughey, Julie Andrews, Trevor Noah and Dua Lipa introduced each of the event’s categories with pre-recorded messages.

Angelou died in 2014 at the age of 86. Winfrey has previously opened up about how the poet made a lasting impact on her life. In 2018, she described Agelou as a mix of a friend, mentor and mother figure, and gained inspiration from her for Winfrey’s A Wrinkle in Time character, Mrs Which.

“I’ve been blessed to have Maya Angelou as my mentor, mother/sister and friend since my 20’s,” Winfrey told Variety after Angelou died in 2014. “She was there for me always, guiding me through some of the most important years of my life.”

Before her death, Angelou had also appeared many times on The Oprah Winfrey Show.