Each year The New York Public Library honors several distinguished individuals for outstanding achievements in their respective fields of arts, culture, letters and scholarship by naming them Library Lions. On November 6, the Library will honor Colson Whitehead, Michael Chabon, Carla Hayden, Robert Wilson, and Tom Brokaw as 2017 Library Lions.

For over 35 years, the Library has celebrated these individuals. Previous honorees include author Margaret Atwood, South African President Nelson Mandela, actor Steve Martin, director Martin Scorsese, novelist Zadie Smith, activist Gloria Steinem, media mogul Oprah Winfrey, and many more. Last year’s honorees were Harry Belafonte, Hilary Mantel, Javier Marías, Peggy Noonan, and Colm Tóibín.

Colson Whitehead is the #1 New York Times bestselling and Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Underground Railroad, and winner of the 2016 National Book Award. He was a 2007-2008 Fellow at The New York Public Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, and in 2002 he win the Library’s Young Lions FIction Award.

Michael Chabon is one of America’s most distinctive voices and is celebrated in contemporary literature. He is a bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. His other works include The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, A Model World, Wonder Boys, Telegraph Avenue, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, and more.

Carla Hayden is the 14th Librarian of Congress, and is the first woman and first African American to lead the national library. Hayden was president of the American Library Association from 2003 to 2004 and in 1995 she was the first African American to receive Library Journal’s Librarian of the Year Award.

Robert Wilson is one of the world’s foremost theater and visual artists, earning acclaim from audiences and critics worldwide. Wilson founded the New York‐based performance collective “The Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds” in the mid‐1960s and developed his first signature works, including Deafman Glance and A Letter for Queen Victoria.

Tom Brokaw has spent his entire distinguished journalism career with NBC News, starting in Los Angeles before becoming White House correspondent, host of Today, anchor of NBC Nightly News, and moderator of Meet the Press for a year following the death of Tim Russert.

He is the author of seven books including The Greatest Generation, The Greatest Generation Speaks, An Album of Memories, about the WWII generation in America; Boom!, about 1968; The Time of Our Lives; A Long Way From Home; and most recently A Lucky Life Interrupted: A Memoir.

Brokaw has won every major award for his craft, and in November 2014 was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, and in 2016, the French Legion of Honor.

There is currently an exhibition dedicated to the Library Lions in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building through November 5, 2017. This display highlights the inspirations of our Library Lions, showing items that are important to them in addition to items from the Library’s collections by those who have influenced the Lions’ careers.

Learn more here about the Library Lions gala, to be held on November 6, 2017. We'll be sharing updates live from the event to our Instagram story—be sure to follow along!