Peter Carey Honored With Prestigious Medal in Oxford

The University of Oxford's Bodleian Libraries will award Peter Carey with its highest honor at an April 1st ceremony in Oxford, England. Carey, the executive director of Hunter College's MFA Creative Writing program, will be presented the Bodley Medal at the Sheldonian Theatre following his delivery of the Bodley Lecture and an on-stage interview with The Sunday Times chief fiction reviewer, Peter Kemp.

The Bodley medal is awarded to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the worlds of culture, science, and communication.  According to Dr. Sarah Thomas, who will present the medal, "Peter Carey is one of the greatest contemporary authors. The Bodleian Libraries are pleased to have the opportunity to honor his exceptional contribution to literature."

The event is being held for the first time as part of The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival, and comes one day before Carey's 18th novel, The Chemistry of Tears, is due to hit the bookshelves. The Bodley Medal will add to Carey's long list of accolades, which includes two Booker Prizes.

With this honor, Carey finds himself in good company; the medal was last awarded in 2008 to writer and actor Alan Bennett. Other past winners include film director Lord Richard Attenborough and inventor of the World Wide Web Sir Tim Berners-Lee.