National Book Award - Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters - Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community

Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Dal 1988 la Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters viene assegnata ad un autore che abbia arricchito il patrimonio letterario con la propria vita ed opera
1988	Jason Epstein
1989	Daniel J. Boorstin
1990	Saul Bellow
1991	Eudora Welty
1992	James Laughlin
1993	Clifton Fadiman
1994	Gwendolyn Brooks
1995	David McCullough
1996	Toni Morrison
1997	Studs Terkel
1998	John Updike
1999	Oprah Winfrey
2000	Ray Bradbury
2001	Arthur Miller
2002	Philip Roth
2003	Stephen King
2004	Judy Blume
2005	Norman Mailer
2006	Adrienne Rich
2007	Joan Didion
2008	Maxine Hong Kingston
2009	Gore Vidal
2010	Tom Wolfe
2011	John Ashbery
2012	Elmore Leonard
2013	E. L. Doctorow
2014	Ursula K. Le Guin
2015	Don DeLillo
2016	Robert Caro
2017	Annie Proulx
2018	Isabel Allende
2019	Edmund White
2020	Walter Mosley
2021	Karen Tei Yamashita
2022

Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community Dal 2005 il Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community viene conferito ad un autore il cui eccezionale contributo alla comunità letteraria americana rappresenta gli obiettivi della National Book Foundation di ampliare il pubblico e incrementare il valore culturale della letteratura negli Stati Uniti.
2005	Lawrence Ferlinghetti
2006	Robert B. Silvers & Barbara Epstein
2007	Terry Gross
2008	Barney Rosset
2009	Dave Eggers
2010	Joan Ganz Cooney
2011	Mitchell Kaplan
2012	Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr.
2013	Maya Angelou
2014	Kyle Zimmer
2015	James Patterson
2016	Cave Canem Foundation
2017	Richard Robinson
2018	Doron Weber
2019	Oren J. Teicher
2020	Carolyn Reidy
2021	Nancy Pearl
2022