NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 24: Writer Maya Angelou attends the memorial celebration for Odetta at Riverside Church on February 24, 2009 in New York City.
Astrid Stawiarz/Getty ImagesDr. Maya Angelou will be honored with a Norman Mailer Prize at the Norman Mailer Center and Writers Colony’s fifth annual benefit gala Oct. 17 at the New York Public Library, announced the organization’s president and co-founder, Lawrence Schiller on Wednesday.
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The distinguished author will be presented with the Norman Mailer Prize for Lifetime Achievement. Junot Diaz, author of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, will be presented with the Norman Mailer Prize for Distinguished Writing, while the late journalist Michael Hastings will posthumously receive the Norman Mailer Award for Emerging Journalist.
Honorary chair, Gay Talese and masters of ceremonies, David Black and Dick Cavett, will host the evening reception honoring some of the world’s most renowned and emerging writers. Joyce Carol Oates will present the evening’s Norman Mailer National Teachers Writing Award.
The Norman Mailer Center is an educational nonprofit dedicated to nurturing the values of renowned author Norman Mailer‘s work in future generations of writers.
