The White House has announced the ten recipients of the 2014 National Humanities Medal.
Five of the medalists come from the literary world: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek author Annie Dillard, Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go Away author Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, The Namesake author Jhumpa Lahiri, Lonesome Dove author Larry McMurtry, and The Edible Schoolyard author Alice Waters. The non-literary honorees include The Clemente Course in the Humanities, architect Everett L. Fly, historian Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, scholar Fedwa Malti-Douglas, and historian Vicki Lynn Ruiz.
According to the press release, “the National Humanities Medal honors an individual or organization whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the human experience, broadened citizens’ engagement with history and literature or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to cultural resources.” President Barack Obama will present the awards to the winners at a ceremony which will take place on September 10. Past recipients include The Year of Magical Thinking author Joan Didion, them author Joyce Carol Oates, and Portnoy’s Complaint author Philip Roth.