JOAN DIDION TO RECEIVE THE MEDAL FOR DISTINGUISHED CONTRIBUTION TO AMERICAN LETTERS FROM THE NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION

The National Book Foundation, presenter of the National Book Awards, will bestow its 2007 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters on Joan Didion in recognition of her outstanding achievements as a novelist and essayist.

An incisive observer of American politics and culture for more than forty-five years, her distinctive blend of spare, elegant prose and fierce intelligence has earned her books a place in the canon of American literature as well as the admiration of generations of writers and journalists.

She won the National Book Award in 2005 for her last book, The Year of Magical Thinking. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Cunningham will present the Medal at the 58th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner in New York City on Wednesday, November 14. Writer and humorist Fran Lebowitz will host the evening for the second consecutive year.
Also that evening, The National Book Foundation will award Terry Gross, host and executive producer of National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air,” The Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. This award recognizes the important contribution she has made to the world of books – and to our understanding of literature and the writing process – through her probing and intelligent interviews with authors. Ira Glass, host and producer of National Public Radio’s “This American Life,” will present the Award.

In making the announcements, Harold Augenbraum, executive director of the Foundation, said, “These two women are icons in the literary world and their contributions are now legendary – Joan Didion as one of the keenest observers and finest prose stylists of our time and Terry Gross as one of the most intelligent voices on the airwaves and one of the few who devotes hundreds of hours a year to talking about books and literature. Both women are fearless in their questioning and their insights on the page and on the air have informed our understanding of America and of America’s writers for decades. Our Board of Directors is honored that they will accept these awards and grace our gala with their presence.”
Joan Didion is the eighteenth recipient of the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, which has been bestowed on such literary luminaries as Saul Bellow, Eudora Welty, Toni Morrison, John Updike, and Norman Mailer.

Joan Didion was born in Sacramento, California in 1934 and has been a novelist, essayist and screenwriter for more than three decades.

Her five novels are Run River (1963), Play It As It Lays (1970), A Book of Common Prayer (1977), Democracy (1984), and The Last Thing He Wanted (1996). Her nonfiction books are Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968), The White Album (1978), Salvador (1983), Miami (1987), After Henry (1992), Political Fictions (2001), Where I Was From (2003) and The Year of Magical Thinking (2005), a memoir, which won the National Book Award. Ms. Didion adapted her memoir into a Broadway play starring Vanessa Redgrave.

She is a contributor to The New York Review of Books and The New Yorker. Ms. Didion and her late husband, John Gregory Dunne, co-authored several screenplays. In 2005, Didion received the Gold Medal for Belles Lettres from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which is the highest honor the Academy awards to a writer. She lives in New York City.