Are you in the know about the National Book Foundation’s two lifetime achievement awards? We now know the 2026 recipients of:
- The Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (DCAL) honoring “a person who has enriched our literary heritage over a life of service, or a corpus of work.”
- The Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community honoring literary activists “helping to increase access to and diversity in literature.”
The Foundation’s 2026 lifetime achievement award winners are:
- Salman Rushdie for the DCAL. Author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction (Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder), Rushdie was described as “a bold, innovative writer and an indefatigable defender of free speech.”
- Perri Klass for the Literarian Award. National Medical Director of Reach Out and Read and prolific writer (Other Women’s Children), the Foundation recognizes Klass for her work in “reaffirming the importance of reading and storytelling as an integral part of early childhood.”
Previous winners of the DCAL and notable contributions include:
- Nobel Prize-winning author of Beloved Toni Morrison
- Key figure in the New Journalism movement and Play It As It Lays author Joan Didion
Previous winners of the Literarian Award include:
- Feminist activist, literary champion, and Difficult Women author Roxane Gay
- Cave Canem, a program that provides safe spaces for African American poets to practice their craft
Dolly Parton, who famously twice declined the Presidential Medal of Freedom also declined the Literarian Award. According to the Foundation’s executive director, Ruth Dickey, Parton “graciously declined each time saying that she didn’t need the recognition.”
