Salman Rushdie

The National Book Foundation announced that it will award Salman Rushdie the National Book Award 2026 for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (DCAL). The award will be presented at the 77th National Book Awards Ceremony & Benefit Dinner on 18 November 2026. Rushdie is the 39th recipient of the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. And he is just the fourth born outside of the US, following Canada native Saul Bellow, Isabel Allende of Chile and Swedish-born Art Spiegelman.

• Born in Bombay, India in 1947, Rushdie is the author of 15 novels, including Grimus; Midnight’s Children, winner of the 1981 Booker Prize; Shame; The Satanic Verses; Haroun and the Sea of Stories; The Moor’s Last Sigh; The Ground Beneath Her Feet; Fury; Shalimar the Clown; The Enchantress of Florence; Luka and the Fire of Life; Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights; The Golden House; Quichotte; and Victory City.

• Rushdie served as the president of PEN America from 2004 to 2006, and co-founded the PEN World Voices Festival in 2005. His accolades include the Booker Prize, the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel and the PEN Centenary Courage Award.