Don DeLillo to receive literary Medal

Don DeLillo will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Foundation during the National Book Awards ceremony this fall.

DeLillo, 78, will be given the 2015 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in New York on Nov. 18.

His body of work includes 15 novels and a novella, including the National Book Award winner White Noise. Libra and Underworld were National Book Award finalists, and Mao II won the PEN/Faulkner Award.

“Don DeLillo is unquestionably one of the greatest novelists of his generation,” said Harold Augenbraum, the Foundation’s Executive Director. “He has had an enormous influence on the two generations of writers that followed, and his work will continue to resonate for generations to come.”

DeLillo is the 28th writer to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, created in 1988. Previous recipients include Judy Blume, Joan Didion, E.L. Doctorow, Elmore Leonard, Norman Mailer and Toni Morrison.

Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Egan will present the medal to DeLillo.