George Saunders has been named this year's winner of the National Book Award for Distinguished Contributions to American Letters.

Edmund White, a pioneer of contemporary gay literature, died this week at age 85.

Edmund White, the groundbreaking man of letters who documented and imagined the gay revolution through journalism, essays, memoirs and novels, has died.

Poet Rita Dove is this year's winner of an honorary National Book Award for “Distinguished Contribution to American Letters,” a lifetime achievement prize previously given to Toni Morrison and Don DeLillo among others.

(AP Photo/Jeff Christensen, File)NEW YORK Reaction to the death of Larry Kramer, the AIDS activist and playwright who turned his fury into mass protests and helped raise the profile of the disease:"If you remember the early days of the AIDS crisis then you remember Larry Kramer. Author and fellow founder of the Gay Men's Health Crisis Edmund White, in a statement. His anger was needed at a time when gay mens deaths to AIDS were being ignored by the American government. Elton John, in a statement. Thank you, Larry Kramer. Lin-Manuel Miranda, via Twitter. ___Rest in power to our fighter Larry Kramer.