Novelist Don DeLillo named first recipient of Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction

By Ron Charles,

Apr 25, 2013 - The Washington Post

Don DeLillo, the celebrated novelist who once complained that as a young writer he “lacked ambition,” has been named the first recipient of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. The new lifetime achievement award, announced Thursday by Librarian of Congress James Billington, will be presented at the 13th annual National Book Festival in September.
For his many fans, this presents a rare opportunity. DeLillo, who usually avoids such public events and hasn’t done a book tour in years, has agreed to speak at the festival, which last year drew more than 200,000 people to the Mall.

Left -(AGF s.r.l. / Rex Features/ASSOCIATED PRESS) - Don DeLillo at the International Festival of Literature in Rome, 2011.

“I’m a writer in perennial hiding,” he admits by phone from his home in Westchester County, N.Y. You won’t find him on Twitter, like so many Web-savvy authors, plugging his latest book. “I’m not a recluse, but there are things I do differently, things I avoid and invitations I turn down constantly.”
According to a statement from the Library of Congress, the new Prize for American Fiction “seeks to commend strong, unique, enduring voices that — throughout long, consistently accomplished careers — have told us something about the American experience.” The prize continues in the tradition of the Library of Congress Lifetime Achievement Award for the Writing of Fiction, given to Herman Wouk in 2008, and it replaces the Library’s Creative Achievement Award for Fiction, which began four years ago in connection with the National Book Festival. Previous Creative Achievement Award winners have included John Grisham, Isabel Allende, Philip Roth and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison.
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