John Irving joins FFRF convention

Acclaimed author and Oscar-winner John Irving has agreed to speak at FFRF’s 43rd annual convention in San Antonio the weekend of Nov. 13–15.

He will receive FFRF’s Emperor Has No Clothes Award, for statements such as this remark in a New York Times op-ed in June 2019: “Freedom of religion in the United States also means freedom from religion.”

He will be part of a speaker lineup that includes fellow authors Margaret Atwood and Gloria Steinem, among many others. (For more on the speakers, turn to page 2. For details about convention registration, see the back page.)

Irving has been nominated for a National Book Award three times — winning it in 1980 for his novel The World According to Garp. He received an O. Henry Award in 1981 for his short story “Interior Space.” In 2000, Irving won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for “The Cider House Rules.” In 2013, he won a Lambda Literary Award for his novel, In One Person.

In 2018, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize honored Irving with the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award.

Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of Garp in 1978. Many of Irving’s novels, including The Cider House Rules (1985), A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989), and A Widow for One Year (1998), have been bestsellers.