Literarian Award, 2007
The Literarian Award is presented to an individual for outstanding service to the American literary community, whose life and work exemplify the goals of the National Book Foundation to expand the audience for literature and to enhance the cultural value of literature in America.
Terry Gross
On November 14th, at the 2007 National Book Awards
Ceremony, the National Book Foundation will honor
Terry Gross,
host and executive producer of National Public Radio’s
“Fresh Air,” with The Literarian Award
for Outstanding Service to the American Literary
Community. This award recognizes the important contribution
she has made to the world of books – and to
our understanding of literature and the writing
process – through her probing and intelligent
interviews with authors. Ira
Glass, host and producer of public
radio’s “This American Life,”
will present the Award.
Photo © Will Ryan
Terry Gross is the host and co-executive producer of “Fresh Air,” National Public Radio’s weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. The program is heard by more than four and a half million people on nearly 500 public radio stations. Over the years her guests have included America’s most interesting and celebrated writers.
Gross began her radio career in 1973 at public radio station WBFO in Buffalo, New York. Two years later Terry Gross began hosting and producing “Fresh Air,” when it was a local program broadcast by WHYY in Philadelphia. NPR has distributed the daily program since 1987. In 1994, “Fresh Air” received a Peabody Award, which cited Gross for her “probing questions and unusual insights.” In 1999, America Women in Radio and Television gave Gross a Gracie Award in the category National Network Radio Personality. In 2003, Gross received the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Her book, All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians and Artists, was published in 2004. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.
Ira Glass
Ira Glass
is the host and producer of the public radio
program, “This American Life.” The
show had its premier on Chicago’s public
radio station WBEZ in 1995 and is now heard
on more than 500 public radio stations each
week. In March 2007, the television adaptation
of “This American Life” premiered
on Showtime to critical acclaim. Under Glass’s
direction, the show has won the highest honors
for broadcasting and journalistic excellence,
including the Peabody and DuPont-Columbia awards,
as well as the Edward R. Murrow and the Overseas
Press Club awards. In 2001, Time magazine
named Glass “Best Radio Host in America.”
Glass began his career as an intern at National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. and over the years has worked on nearly every NPR network news program and held virtually every production job in NPR’s Washington headquarters.