Don DeLillo will receive the Jerusalem Prize this year, the first American writer to win the prize since it was established 26 years ago. The prize, awarded at the biennial Jerusalem International Book Fair, to be held this year June 20-25, is awarded to a writer whose work best expresses the freedom of the individual in society. DeLillo, who will be at the fair, will receive the prize from Jerusalem's mayor, Ehud Olmert.
The judges cited the author for a body of work that "reflects an unrelenting struggle against even the most sophisticated forms of repression of individual and public freedom in modern culture during the last half-century." They were Israeli Supreme Court judge Meir Shamgar and writers Michal Govrin and Dan Tsalka. DeLillo's work, they added, proves the power of language and literature to unveil niches of intimacy even in the midst of a crowd."
Previous English-language winners have included Bertrand Russell, Graham Greene, V.S. Naipaul and J.M. C tzee.
