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. This year, the Library is pleased to announce the 2018 class of Library Lions: Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow, Oscar-winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, GRAMMY-winning opera singer Jessye Norman, Citizen poet Claudia Rankine, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout.

"These five icons have shaped our culture in immeasurable ways," said NYPL President Anthony Marx of this year’s class. "We live in a world in which freedom of expression, creativity, independent thinking, and scholarship are not only important, but critical. Whether through song, prose, poetry, or film, this year’s class of Lions has embodied the spirit of Library Lions by inspiring others to learn, grow, and explore. The Library thanks them for their contributions, and is sincerely proud to honor them.”

Ron Chernow has written multiple biographies, and his renowned biography of Alexander Hamilton inspired the Broadway musical and phenomenon Hamilton. "My writing career started in The New York Public Library,” said Chernow. “During the summer after my freshman year at Yale, I sat in the main reading room of the 42nd Street Library and wrote a godawful novel that was never published. As a result, the library must accept all the credit or blame for my subsequent career. I am therefore thrilled to be numbered among this year's Library Lions."

Iconic filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola was behind classics such as Patton, The Godfather series, The Outsiders, and more. "As a small child trailing after my older brother, I always loved the lions in front of The New York Public Library,” said Coppola. “My brother had told me a story that the young library workers who were below in the stacks moved on roller skates to find the books for the book elevator. I depicted it that way in my first film, which was shot in The New York Public Library. For me, this is a much-appreciated honor and return."

Distinguished opera singer Jessye Norman has won multiple awards, including the GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award. "One of my many lasting memories of growing up in Augusta, Georgia is of the story-telling by the librarian at the Wallace Branch Library,” Norman shared. “This early acquaintance with books and the wondrous stimulation of the imagination made me a life-long lover of libraries. Books take us on a journey and we come back refreshed, renewed, awakened and ready for more. Long live libraries, these cathedrals of exploration. I am thrilled to become a Library Lion!"

Award-winning poet Claudia Rankine’s most recent work Citizen: An American Lyric, a book-length poem, is the only poetry book to be a New York Times nonfiction bestseller. "I am honored to be named a 2018 Library Lion alongside these inspiring artists, writers, and thinkers,” said Rankine. “In our current moment, it is crucial our cultural institutions be given the utmost support to do their work of fostering independence of thought alongside historical perspectives. The New York Public Library is the center of this kind of service, and inspires me as a teacher, artist, writer and lover of books."

Acclaimed novelist Elizabeth Strout is known for her works of literary fiction such as Olive Kitteridge. “In these times it is wise for us to recall that from the first days of the NYPL, it was a haven for recently arrived immigrants who found a safe place there to read about the culture of a world they had left, and of the world they were now in,” Strout said. “It is essential to the fabric of a community to have a library that reflects the needs of their people, and who opens the door to a broadening of their lives; NYPL does all this splendidly. I am really so deeply honored to be a Library Lion from this library who reaches out to everyone, no matter who they are or where they came from.”

Previous Library Lions honorees include 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.

The five recipients of the institution’s highest honor will be celebrated during the Library Lions ceremony on November 5, 2018. For tickets or more information about the event, follow #LibraryLions on social media or click here.

Update from November 6, 2018:

If you'd like to see a highlight of photos from the ceremony, please click here.