Barbara Kingsolver to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award

Pulitzer Prize winner Barbara Kingsolver is about to add another accolade to her name.

On Friday, September 5, the National Book Foundation announced that it will award the Copperhead Demon author of his 2024 medal for his remarkable contribution to American letters.

Kingsolver, 68, is set to receive the lifetime achievement award at the 75th National Book Awards and Benefit Dinner on Nov. 20, where she will be recognized for her decades of work in fiction, nonfiction, investigative journalism, poetry and science writing.

“Spanning all genres, Barbara Kingsolver’s exceptional writing and authenticity, on and off the page, have inspired generations of writers and readers,” David Steinberger, chairman of the National Book Foundation’s board of trustees, said in a press release.

“Kingsolver’s books, which have been translated into dozens of languages, have had a profound impact on the national and global literary landscape, and it is our profound honor to present him with this Lifetime Achievement Award on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the National Book Awards.”

Kingsolver has already received the National Humanities Medal in 2000, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2023 (Copperhead Demon) and has also been recognized by the American Booksellers Association, the American Library Association, the James Beard Foundation, and the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, among others.

The author — whose works include novels such as Bean trees And Homelessnon-fiction titles such as Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strikeand several collections of poetry and essays — was born in Annapolis, Maryland, raised in Kentucky, and currently lives in southwest Virginia.

She told the Associated Press “It was a remarkable and wonderful feeling to be appreciated and honored in this way by my peers.” Nominations for the honor are made by past National Book Award winners, finalists, judges and other writers and literary professionals, according to a statement.

“This is not someone who is a stranger to this field. These are people who see literature as our livelihood and our spiritual anchor,” she said. “And that means a lot to me.”

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In a statement, the foundation’s executive director, Ruth Dickey, said Kingsolver’s writing “embraces the personal and the political, examines complex issues of social justice, exalts the natural world and explores progressive social change with care and specificity.”

“For Kingsolver, writing is a tool for community activism, a way to shine a light on some of the most complex environmental and social injustices of our time, and an art form through which she can share the stories of her beloved Appalachia with the world,” Dickey continued. “We have all benefited from her genius, and it is a gift to celebrate her remarkable literary achievements with the 2024 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.”

The 75th National Book Awards will be held on November 20 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York, where she will receive the award from her agent, Sam Stoloff of the Frances Golden Agency.

For more information about the 75th National Book Awards and benefit dinner and to register for the broadcast, visit the National Book Foundation.