Barbara Kingsolver to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award from National Book Foundation: 'Inspired Generations'

The foundation announced on Sept. 6 that the Pulitzer winner will be awarded the 2024 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters

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

On Friday, Sept. 5, the National Book Foundation announced that it will be awarding the Demon Copperhead author its 2024 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Kingsolver, 68, is set to accept the lifetime achievement award at the 75th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner on Nov. 20, when she'll be recognized for her decades of work spanning fiction, nonfiction, investigative journalism, poetry and science writing.

“Spanning genres, Barbara Kingsolver’s exceptional writing and authenticity, on and off of the page, has inspired generations of writers and readers,” said David Steinberger, chair of the Board of Directors of the National Book Foundation, in a press release.

“Kingsolver’s books — which have been translated into dozens of languages — have had a vast impact on the national and global literary landscape, and it is our profound honor to present her with this lifetime achievement award at the 75th anniversary of the National Book Awards.”

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Kingsolver has previously been honored with the 2000 National Humanities Medal, the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (Demon Copperhead) and has also earned recognition from the American Booksellers Association, the American Library Association, the James Beard Foundation and the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, among others.

The author — whose works have included novels such as The Bean Trees and Unsheltered, nonfiction titles such as Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike, and multiple poetry and essay collections — was born in Annapolis, Md., grew up in Kentucky and currently lives in southwestern Virginia.

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She told the Associated Press that it was "a remarkable and wonderful feeling to be appreciated and honored this way by my peers." Nominations for the honor are made by former National Book Award winners, finalists, judges and other writers and literary professionals, per a release.

“It’s not someone outside the field. It’s the people who see literature as our livelihood and our spiritual anchor," she said. "And that means the world to me.”

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In a statement, the foundation's executive director Ruth Dickey said that Kingsolver's writing "embraces the personal and the political, examining complex issues of social justice, exalting the natural world and exploring progressive social change with care and specificity."

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

The 75th National Book Awards will take place on Nov. 20 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City, where she will accept the award from her agent, Sam Stoloff of the Frances Golden agency.

For more information about the 75th National Book Awards Ceremony & Benefit Dinner and to register for the broadcast, visit the National Book Foundation.

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