Doctorow Wins Library of Congress Prize

E.L. Doctorow (Ragtime, World’s Fair) has been awarded the 2014 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. Previous winners have included Isabel Allende, Philip Roth and Toni Morrison. According to the New York Times Artsbeat blog:

[Doctorow] said the prize was particularly important to him because the nominees are chosen by past winners and other esteemed authors and critics. “To have the regard of one’s peers is immensely moving,” he said.

Doctorow will receive the award in a ceremony at the Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington on August 30th.

Doctorow’s newest book, Andrew’s Brain (Random House) was published in January. The London Sunday Times got hyperbolic about the book, calling it “A tantalising tour de force … it fizzes with intellectual energy, verbal pyrotechnics and satiric flair.”