E.L. (Edgar Lawrence) Doctorow -- whose novels over the past 50 years are characterized by a blend of historical figures, fictional characters and social criticism -- was awarded the 2007 Chicago Tribune Literary Prize for lifetime achievement. The Prize was established in 2002; past recipients are Arthur Miller, Tom Wolfe, August Wilson, Margaret Atwood and Joyce Carol Oates.
Doctorow will receive his award on Sunday, November 4, at Chicago's Symphony Center, where he will speak at a 10 a.m. session as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival.
"In many ways, Doctorow is a time-traveler. Whether writing about periods as distant as the Civil War or as relatively recent as the Cold War, he provokes a very powerful sense for the reader of living the time," said Ann Marie Lipinski, editor of the Chicago Tribune. "But he bends history in a way that makes you reconsider it. Doctorow has given us a sweeping collection of novels, non-fiction, short stories and theater. There are few living Americans with as inventive and substantial a body of work."
Heartland Prizes
Chicago Tribune also announced the winners of the 2007 Heartland Prizes for fiction and non-fiction. Robert Olmstead was awarded the Heartland Prize for fiction for his novel, "Coal Black Horse," a story about a 14-year-old boy's search for his father amidst the darkness of the Civil War. Orville Vernon Burton was awarded the Heartland Prize for non-fiction for "The Age of Lincoln," an ambitious work asserting that Abraham Lincoln's most profound achievement was creating a new concept of personal freedom in the 19th Century United States.
Olmstead and Burton will also receive their awards Sunday, November 4, during the Chicago Humanities Festival. They will speak at a 1 p.m. session at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Chicago Tribune established the Heartland Prizes in 1988 to annually recognize a novel and a work of non-fiction that reinforce and perpetuate the values of heartland America. Past honorees in the fiction category include Ward Just, Alice Sebold, Jane Smiley and Jane Hamilton. Previous recipients of the non-fiction prize include Ann Patchett, Studs Terkel and Alex Kotlowitz.
Nelson Algren Awards
Later this year, the Chicago Tribune Books Section will announce the winner and three runners-up in this year's Nelson Algren short-story contest. Past winners include Heartland Prize winner Louise Erdrich and National Book Award winner Julia Glass. The Chicago Tribune's annual literary awards are part of the company's ongoing commitment to the written word and its support of literacy and literary endeavor.
