Articles

Former Humanities Texas Board Member Nicolás Kanellos—scholar and publisher of Hispanic literature—has been recognized as a 2023 National Humanities Medalist. Kanellos was presented with his award by President Joseph R. Biden during a ceremony at the White House on October 21, 2024.

The National Humanities Medal was inaugurated in 1997 and honors individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities and broadened our citizens' engagement with history, literature, languages, philosophy, and other humanities subjects. It is one of the country's highest civilian honors.

Kanellos is considered one of the greatest champions of Latino and Hispanic literature in the United States, although he comes from an era when it was a virtually unknown field. He is the Brown Foundation Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Houston and a groundbreaking publisher, having founded Arte Público Press and the literary journal The Americas Review. In 1992, the press launched Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage, an international project to locate, index, and publish lost Latino writings that date from the American colonial period through the mid-twentieth century. Today, Arte Público publishes twenty-five books a year, and the substantial presence of Latino literature in the U.S. and in academia that Kanellos helped build is stronger than ever.

This year's other medalists include writer and director Aaron Sorkin, social justice philanthropist Darren Walker, and cartoonist and author Roz Chast, among others.

To learn more about Nicolás Kanellos and the National Humanities Medal, visit the NEH website.