The National Book Foundation announced yesterday that poet Adrienne Rich and editors Robert Silvers and Barbara Epstein (posthumously) will receive special honors at the National Book Awards ceremony on November 15.
Rich, who won the National Book Award in poetry in 1974 and was a finalist in three other years, is the author of nearly twenty books of poetry. Poet Mark Doty will present her with the 2006 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in recognition of her "incomparable influence and achievement."
Robert Silvers and the late Barbara Epstein, cofounders of the New York Review of Books, will receive the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. David Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker, will present the award to Silvers, who continues to edit the NYRB. Epstein died of lung cancer on June 16.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti will announce the finalists for the 2006 National Book Awards from City Lights in San Francisco on October 11.
