ROBERT CARO

Robert Caro has been writing history for much of his adult life.

The National Book Foundation announced Friday that Karen Tei Yamashita has been awarded its medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, a $10,000 honor previously given to Toni Morrison, Robert Caro and Isabel Allende among others.

The unholy merger of pop culture and politics, which gave us Trump, is now giving us other celebrities who continue to corrupt our national discourse.

This image released by Viking shows "After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America" by Jessica Goudeau, winner of the Lukas Book Prize, a $10,000 honor for a socially or politically themed work. (Viking via AP)NEW YORK – Books about slavery, immigration and drug treatment are among this year's winners of awards presented by the J. Anthony Lukas Project. Jessica Goudeau's “After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America” won the Lukas Book Prize, a $10,000 honor for a socially or politically themed work which demonstrates “literary grace, commitment to serious research, and original reporting.”The Mark Lynton History Prize, also worth $10,000, was given to William G. Thomas III for “A Question of Freedom: The Families Who Challenged Slavery from the Nation’s Founding to the Civil War.”On Wednesday, the Lukas project also announced two work-in-progress awards, each with a $25,000 cash prize to help with the book's completion: Emily Dufton, for “Addiction, Inc.: How the Corporate Takeover of America’s Treatment Industry Created a Profitable Epidemic” and Casey Parks, for “Diary Of a Misfit." AdThe Lukas project, based at Columbia University, is named for the late investigative reporter and author. The awards were established in 1998 and have previously been given to Robert Caro, Isabel Wilkerson and Jill Lepore among others.

NEW YORK Walter Mosley is receiving an honorary National Book Award, cited for dozens of books which range from science fiction and erotica to the acclaimed mystery series that has followed the life of Los Angeles private detective Ezekiel Easy Rawlins. The National Book Awards are presented by the non-profit National Book Foundation. But like such previous medal winners as Ray Bradbury and Elmore Leonard, he has never been nominated for a National Book Award in a competitive category. Mosley knows well the reason: Crime fiction is usually bypassed when lists for a years best books are considered. In a statement Thursday, National Book Foundation Executive Director Lisa Lucas noted the quantity, and quality, of Mosley's work.

NEW YORK A new literary award with a $50,000 cash prize will honor those best at telling a New York story. Wolfson and Tusk are funding the prize themselves and have committed to at least 10 years. Starting next spring, the award will be presented to a book, fiction or nonfiction, published in a given calendar year that is about New York City or takes place there. Celebrated works of the past that would have fit that category include Robert Caro's The Power Broker, Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities and Toni Morrison's Jazz.Jurors for the Gotham prize include filmmaker Ric Burns, poet Safina Sinclair and former New York City schools chancellor Dennis Walcott. The deadline for submissions for the 2020 prize is Nov. 1.