The Center for Fiction has named Robin Desser, executive v-p, editorial director of Knopf, as the recipient of the 2013 Maxwell E. Perkins Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Field of Fiction. The award will be presented on December 11.

The award recognizes an editor, publisher, or agent who over the course of his or her career has discovered, nurtured, and championed writers of fiction in the U.S. Desser has been with Knopf since 1988 and has worked on books that include The House on Mango Street, Snow Falling on Cedars, The Piano Tuner, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Mary Gaitskill's Bad Behavior.

The first Perkins Award was presented in 2005 to Nan A. Talese. Past winners include Gary Fisketjon, Drenka Willen, Jonathan Galassi, Gerry Howard, Amanda Urban, Nan Graham, and Deborah Treisman.