Lifetime Achievement Award and the 1992 National Book Awards Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters; namesake of the annual James Laughlin Award administered by the Academy of American Poets Dennis Lehane – novelist, author of A Drink Before the War and Mystic River John Logan – poet and academic; awarded the 1982 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for Only the Dreamer Can Change the Dream William Logan – poet, critic, and scholar; awarded the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism for The Undiscovered Country: Poetry in the Age of Tin Thomas Lynch – poet and essayist; awarded a 1998 American Book Award for The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade Michael Patrick MacDonald – memoirist; winner of a 2000 American Book Award for All Souls: A Family Story From Southie George R. R. Martin – author of the epic fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire Cormac McCarthy – novelist and playwright; author of Blood Meridian and winner of the 2007 Pulitzer for The Road Frank McCourt – memoirist; winner of the 1996 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for Angela's Ashes Alice McDermott – novelist; awarded the 1998 National Book Award and a 1999 American Book Award for Charming Billy Campbell McGrath – poet Thomas McGrath – poet; awarded a 1984 American Book Award for Echoes Inside the Labyrinth and the 1989 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for Selected Poems: 1938–1988 Thomas McGuane – novelist, screenwriter, and short story writer; nominated for a National Book Award for Ninety-Two in the Shade Jay McInerney – novelist; author of Bright Lights, Big City James McMichael – poet; awarded the 1999 Arthur Rense Prize Terrence McNally – playwright; winner of six Tony Awards and nominated for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Perfect Ganesh Maile Meloy – novelist and short story writer; awarded The Paris Review's 2001 Aga Khan Prize for Fiction for her story "Aqua Boulevard" Margaret Mitchell – novelist; awarded the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Gone with the Wind Helen Curtin Moskey – poet Robert C. O'Brien – journalist and children's author; awarded the 1972 Newbery Medal for Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH Tim O'Brien – novelist and short story writer; prominent author of fiction about the Vietnam War, including The Things They Carried, a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National