Albert Murray, the 90-year-old novelist, cultural critic and poet, has been awarded the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal by Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.
"We present Albert Murray with the Du Bois Medal today," said Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the institute’s director, "to let him know that his life’s work is not only valued, but also recognized as vital and central to our intellectual and artistic tradition." Murray is the author of such works as The Omni-Americans, Black Experience and American Culture and Train Whistle Guitar. Recent winners of the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal include Aimé Césaire, George Lamming, Toni Morrison, Wole Soyinka, and Derek Walcott.
