Editing National Book Award (section)

== Medal for Distinguished Contribution (lifetime) ==
The '''Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters''' is a lifetime achievement award presented by the Foundation at the final ceremony for the Book Awards. The medal comes with a cash prize of $10,000. It recognizes someone who "has enriched [American] literary heritage over a life of service, or a corpus of work."<ref name=letters>National Book Foundation: Awards: [http://www.nationalbook.org/amerletters.html "Distinguished Contribution to American Letters"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110310053959/http://www.nationalbook.org/amerletters.html |date=2011-03-10 }}. Retrieved before 2012-01-07.</ref>

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
*1988: [[Jason Epstein]]
*1989: [[Daniel Boorstin]]
*1990: [[Saul Bellow]]
*1991: [[Eudora Welty]]
*1992: [[James Laughlin]]
*1993: [[Clifton Fadiman]]
*1994: [[Gwendolyn Brooks]]
*1995: [[David McCullough]]
*1996: [[Toni Morrison]]
*1997: [[Studs Terkel]]
*1998: [[John Updike]]
*1999: [[Oprah Winfrey]]
*2000: [[Ray Bradbury]]
*2001: [[Arthur Miller]]
*2002: [[Philip Roth]]
*2003: [[Stephen King]]
*2004: [[Judy Blume]]
*2005: [[Norman Mailer]]
*2006: [[Adrienne Rich]]
*2007: [[Joan Didion]]
*2008: [[Maxine Hong Kingston]]
*2009: [[Gore Vidal]]
*2010: [[Tom Wolfe]]
*2011: [[John Ashbery]]
*2012: [[Elmore Leonard]]<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/sep/20/elmore-leonard-national-book-foundation |title=Elmore Leonard to be honoured by National Book Foundation |date=September 20, 2012 |author=Alison Flood |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=2012-09-20 |archive-date=2020-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201115153608/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/sep/20/elmore-leonard-national-book-foundation |url-status=live }}</ref>
*2013: [[E. L. Doctorow]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, 2013|url=http://www.nationalbook.org/amerletters_2013_doctorow.html|access-date=2014-01-04|archive-date=2014-01-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140105003841/http://www.nationalbook.org/amerletters_2013_doctorow.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
*2014: [[Ursula K. Le Guin|Ursula Le Guin]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2014/09/ursula_k_le_guin_wins_big_hono.html |title=Ursula K. Le Guin wins big honor from National Book Foundation |first=Jeff |last=Baker |publisher=oregonlive.com |date=September 9, 2014 |access-date=2014-09-09 |archive-date=2014-09-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140910200152/http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2014/09/ursula_k_le_guin_wins_big_hono.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nationalbook.org/amerletters_2014_uleguin.html#.VA8bl2Tt_rR |title=The 2014 Medalist For Distinguished Contribution To American Letters |date=September 9, 2014 |access-date=September 9, 2014 |archive-date=November 24, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124090105/http://www.nationalbook.org/amerletters_2014_uleguin.html#.VA8bl2Tt_rR |url-status=live }}</ref>
*2015: [[Don DeLillo]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Distinguished Contribution to American Letters|url=http://www.nationalbook.org/amerletters.html|publisher=National Book Foundation|access-date=November 20, 2015|archive-date=March 10, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110310053959/http://www.nationalbook.org/amerletters.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
*2016: [[Robert Caro]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/announcements/robert-a-caro-to-receive-2016-medal-for-distinguished-contribution-to-american-letters/|title=Robert A. Caro to Receive 2016 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters|website=penguinrandomhouse.com|access-date=27 November 2017|archive-date=1 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201042552/http://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/announcements/robert-a-caro-to-receive-2016-medal-for-distinguished-contribution-to-american-letters/|url-status=live}}</ref>
*2017: [[Annie Proulx|E. Annie Proulx]]<ref>{{cite web|title=The National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters|url=http://www.nationalbook.org/amerletters.html#.WutqU1OFPfY|website=National Book Foundation|access-date=May 3, 2018|archive-date=March 10, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110310053959/http://www.nationalbook.org/amerletters.html#.WutqU1OFPfY|url-status=live}}</ref>
*2018: [[Isabel Allende]]<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.nationalbook.org/watch-the-2018-national-book-awards-ceremony-live/|title = Watch the 2018 National Book Awards Ceremony|date = 9 November 2018|access-date = 16 November 2018|archive-date = 3 January 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200103165032/https://www.nationalbook.org/watch-the-2018-national-book-awards-ceremony-live/|url-status = live}}</ref>
*2019: [[Edmund White]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalbook.org/nbf-to-present-lifetime-achievement-award-to-edmund-white/|title=NBF to Present Pioneering Writer Edmund White with lifetime achievement award|date=12 September 2019|access-date=13 September 2019|archive-date=19 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191219212513/https://www.nationalbook.org/nbf-to-present-lifetime-achievement-award-to-edmund-white/|url-status=live}}</ref>
*2020: [[Walter Mosley]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalbook.org/national-book-foundation-to-present-lifetime-achievement-award-to-walter-mosley/|title=National Book Foundation to Present Lifetime Achievement Award to Walter Mosley|website=National Book Foundation|date=10 September 2020|access-date=27 September 2020|archive-date=25 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925104607/https://www.nationalbook.org/national-book-foundation-to-present-lifetime-achievement-award-to-walter-mosley/|url-status=live}}</ref>
*2021: [[Karen Tei Yamashita]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-arts-and-entertainment-philanthropy-plays-fiction-9a8bf667aa32d72dcb34d12eed6e9508|title=Karen Tei Yamashita to receive honorary National Book Award|website=Associated Press|date=10 September 2021|access-date=10 September 2021|archive-date=10 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210910141017/https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-arts-and-entertainment-philanthropy-plays-fiction-9a8bf667aa32d72dcb34d12eed6e9508|url-status=live}}</ref>
*2022: [[Art Spiegelman]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/16/books/national-book-award-winners.html|title=Imani Perry Wins National Book Award for 'South to America|website=The New York Times|date=16 November 2022|access-date=17 November 2022|archive-date=17 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221117041005/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/16/books/national-book-award-winners.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
*2023: [[Rita Dove]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Italie |first1=Hillel |title=Poet Rita Dove to receive an honorary National Book Award medal for lifetime achievement |url=https://apnews.com/article/rita-dove-poet-national-book-awards-9b13b1b8fdf2c6ee770b6ead8ad809ec |website=Associated Press |access-date=7 February 2024 |date=8 September 2023}}</ref>
*2024: [[Barbara Kingsolver]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=National Book Foundation to Present Lifetime Achievement Award to Barbara Kingsolver |url=https://www.nationalbook.org/programs/dcal/ |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=National Book Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref>
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Five of the seventeen medalists through 2004 were [[List of winners of the National Book Award|previous National Book Award winners]] (Bellow, Welty, McCullough, Updike, and Roth, all but McCullough for fiction). Between 2005 and 2018, all of the medalists except Leonard and Allende have been previous National Book Award winners.