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2017 Literature Award Winners

Contact: Cody Upton

cupton@artsandletters.org

(212) 368-5900

New York, April 6, 2017 – The American Academy of Arts and Letters announced today the names of 19 writers who will receive the 2017 awards in literature, which will be presented in New York City at the Academy’s annual Ceremonial in May.  The literature prizes, totaling $265,000, honor both established and emerging writers of fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry.  The Academy’s 250 members propose candidates, and a rotating committee of writers selects winners.  This year’s award committee members were John Guare (chairman), Thomas McGuane, Anne Tyler, Rosanna Warren, and Joy Williams.

Work by the winners will be featured in the 2017 Exhibition of Work by Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Honors and Awards, which will be on view in the Academy’s galleries on Audubon Terrace from May 18 to June 11.

Arts and Letters Awards in Literature
Eight Arts and Letters Awards in Literature of $10,000 each honor exceptional accomplishment in any genre.
AYAD AKHTAR
CHRIS BACHELDER
PAUL BEATTY
KATHLEEN GRABER
JENNIFER HAIGH
DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU
RICHARD SIEBURTH
LUIS ALBERTO URREA
Blake-Dodd Prize
$25,000 given triennially to a nonfiction writer.
ELIZABETH KOLBERT
Benjamin H. Danks Award
$20,000 given triennially to an exceptional young writer.
JAMAAL MAY
E. M. Forster Award
$20,000 to a young writer from the United Kingdom or Ireland for a stay in the United States.  Award jury: Alison Lurie, Colm Tóibín.
ROBERT MACFARLANE
Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction
$5000 for a work of first fiction (novel or short stories) published in 2016.
LEE CLAY JOHNSON
Nitro Mountain
Award of Merit Medal
$25,000 to an outstanding playwright.
LYNN NOTTAGE
Addison M. Metcalf Award
$10,000 to a young writer of fiction, nonfiction, drama, or poetry.
SAFIYA SINCLAIR
Arthur Rense Poetry Prize
$20,000 given triennially to an exceptional poet.
AUGUST KLEINZAHLER
Rosenthal Family Foundation Award
$10,000 to a young writer of considerable literary talent for a work of fiction published in 2016.
KARAN MAHAJAN
The Association of Small Bombs
John Updike Award
$20,000 given biennially to a writer in mid-career whose work has demonstrated consistent excellence.
DANA SPIOTTA
Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award
$20,000 to a writer whose work merits recognition for the quality of its prose style.
JOAN ACOCELLA
E. B. White Award
$10,000 to a writer for achievement in children’s literature.
JUDY BLUME

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