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2015 Literature Award Winners

New York, March 12, 2015 – The American Academy of Arts and Letters announced today the names of 18 writers who will receive its 2015 awards in literature. The awards will be presented in New York in May at the Academy’s annual Ceremonial. The literature prizes, totaling $250,000, honor both established and emerging writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The Academy’s 250 members nominate candidates, and a rotating committee of writers selects winners. This year’s committee members were John Guare, Philip Levine, Mark Strand, Joy Williams, and Charles Wright.

Arts and Letters Awards in Literature
Eight Arts and Letters Awards in Literature honor exceptional accomplishment in any genre. This year, the awards of $10,000 each will be presented to

ANNIE BAKER • ANN GOLDSTEIN • GLENN GREENWALD
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA • IBRAHIM MUHAWI • VIJAY SESHADRI
JEFFREY SKINNER • NAOMI WALLACE

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: Salman Rushdie, Colm Tóibín.

ADAM THIRLWELL
Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction
$5000 for the best work of first fiction (novel or short stories) published in 2014.
MICHAEL CARROLL
for Little Reef and Other Stories
Award of Merit Medal
and $25,000 to an outstanding novelist.
CORMAC McCARTHY
Addison M. Metcalf Award
of $10,000 to a young writer of fiction, nonfiction, drama or poetry.
AMY ROWLAND
American Academy in Rome Fellowship in Literature
    John Guare Writer’s Fund Rome Prize
Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize

A one-year residency (2015–2016) at the American Academy in Rome.

WILL BOAST
LYSLEY TENORIO
Rosenthal Family Foundation Award
$10,000 to a young writer of considerable literary talent for a work published in 2014.
TIPHANIE YANIQUE
for Land of Love and Drowning
John Updike Award
of $20,000 is given biennially to a writer in mid-career whose work has demonstrated consistent excellence.
ZACHARY LAZAR
Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award
$20,000 to a writer whose work merits recognition for the quality of its prose style.
JOHN LAHR
E. B. White Award
of $10,000 to a writer for achievement in children’s literature.
CHRISTOPHER PAUL CURTIS

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