The 60th annual National Book Awards was a night to celebrate literature and to wonder about its future. Lifetime achievement winner Gore Vidal envisioned only pulp and dust Wednesday as he contemplated the state of books, while fellow honorary winner Dave Eggers declared that we live ...

Haitian-born Canadian writer Dany Laferriere and American novelist Dave Eggers on Wednesday were awarded France's Medicis literary prize celebrating original writing. Laferriere won the Medicis for "L'enigme du retour" (The Enigma of Return), a fictionalised account of the 56-year-old author's soul-wrenching return to his native Haiti to attend his father's funeral. Born in Port-au-Prince but now ...

Congratulations, Gore Vidal. The author, playwright and political commentator will receive an honorary National Book Award medal this fall for "Distinguished Contribution to American Letters." Vidal, who turns 84 next month, is known for such best sellers as "Burr" and "Lincoln," and for the play "The Best Man." Award organizers ...