Dave Eggers' Literacy Efforts Garner Award 10/29/2007 10:36 AM
Los Angeles Times: Dave Eggers' literacy efforts garner award 10/29/2007 10:36 AM http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/nba/lakers/la-et-eggers24oct24,1,3196629.story?coll=la-headlines-sports-nba-lakers From the Los Angeles Times Books & Authors Dave Eggers' literacy efforts garner award Bestselling author and founder of nationwide literacy centers receives the Heinz Award. By Carolyn Kellogg Special to The Times V If literary lions still exist, Dave Eggers is one. His debut, "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," hit bestseller lists in early 2000, creating a dedicated fan base. Since then, he's helped shepherd McSweeney's, the literary quarterly he founded, led its quirky yet ever-growing publishing concern, edited the annual "Best American Non-Required Reading" anthology and continued to do his creative work. While his critics debate whether he's sold out, whether he's too ironic or too sentimental, whether there is too much realism in his fiction or not enough, Eggers has put his celebrity (and his money) behind a chain of nonprofit literacy centers, the first of which, 826 Valencia, opened in San Francisco's Mission District in 2002. There are six cities with 826 centers, including Los Angeles. On Monday night at a ceremony in Pittsburgh, Eggers was honored for this combination of creative work and community involvement with a 2007 Heinz Award in Arts and Humanities. Founded 13 years ago by Teresa Heinz, the Heinz Awards honor work in technology, the human condition, the environment, public policy and the arts. At 37, Eggers is the youngest winner of a Heinz Award, which comes with a $250,000 prize.
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