Ambassador Book Award
The Ambassador Book Award is awarded annually by the English Speaking Union. They recognize important literary works that contribute to the understanding and interpretation of American life and culture. Winners of the award are considered literary ambassadors who provide, in the best contemporary English, an important window on America to the rest of the world. A panel of judges, currently chaired by author Maureen Howard, selects books out of new works in the fields of fiction, biography, autobiography, current affairs, American studies and poetry.
The awards were established in 1986. Since then, winners have included books by such notable authors as Tom Wolfe (1988), Joan Didion (1988), Raymond Carver (1989), Gore Vidal (1989), John Cheever (1992), John Updike (1997), Don Delillo (1998), Philip Roth (1999), and Annie Proulx (2000).
Recent winners of the Ambassador Book Award are:
2007
- American Studies - The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, by Timothy Egan
- Autobiography - The Afterlife: A Memoir, by Donald Antrim
- Biography - The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, by Debby Applegate
- Current Affairs - Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, by Thomas E. Ricks
- Fiction - The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, by Amy Hempel
- Poetry - Averno, by Louise Glück
- Lifetime Achievement: Garry Wills
2006
- American Studies - A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, by Stacy Schiff
- Biography & Autobiography - American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin
- Fiction - Liberation: A Novel, by Joanna Scott
- Poetry - Migration, by W.S. Merwin
2005
- American Studies - Washington's Crossing, by David Hackett Fischer
- Biography & Autobiography - De Kooning: An American Master, by Mark Stevens
- Fiction - Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson
- Poetry - Collected Poems, by Donald Justice
2004
- American Studies - They Marched into Sunlight, by David Maraniss
- Biography & Autobiography - Hawthorne , A Life, by Brenda Wineapple
- Fiction - The Time of Our Singing, by Richard Powers
- Poetry - Robert Lowell: Collected Poems, edited by Frank Bidart & David Gewanter
- Distinguished Achievement Award - Robert A. Caro
2003
- Fiction - Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
- American Studies - In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, by Mary Beth Norton
- Biography & Autobiography - Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War, by T. J. Stiles
- Poetry - Springing, New and Selected Poems, by Marie Ponsot
- Lifetime Achievement Award - Edmund S. Morgan