George Saunders has been named this year's winner of the National Book Award for Distinguished Contributions to American Letters.

Edmund White, a pioneer of contemporary gay literature, died this week at age 85.

Edmund White, the groundbreaking man of letters who documented and imagined the gay revolution through journalism, essays, memoirs and novels, has died.

Poet Rita Dove is this year's winner of an honorary National Book Award for “Distinguished Contribution to American Letters,” a lifetime achievement prize previously given to Toni Morrison and Don DeLillo among others.