NEW YORK, March 20, 2018—The American Academy of Arts and Letters announced today the names of 15 writers who will receive its 2018 awards in literature. The awards will be presented in New York at the Academy’s annual Ceremonial in May. This year’s literature prizes, totaling $185,000, honor both established and emerging writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The Academy’s 250 members propose candidates, and a rotating committee of writers selects winners. This year’s award committee members were Joy Williams (chairman), Russell Banks, Henri Cole, Amy Hempel, and Anne Tyler.
Arts and Letters Awards in Literature
CLARE CAVANAGH ∙ MARY GAITSKILL ∙ ISHION HUTCHINSON
MARLON JAMES ∙ KAY REDFIELD JAMISON ∙ RICK MOODY
MARY ROBISON ∙ BRENDA SHAUGHNESSY
Eight Arts and Letters Awards of $10,000 each honor exceptional accomplishment in literature.
E. M. Forster Award in Literature
JON MCGREGOR of England
$20,000 to a young writer from the United Kingdom or Ireland for a stay in the United States.
Award committee: Alison Lurie, Colm Tóibín.
Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction
EMILY FRIDLUND for History of Wolves
$5000 for a work of first fiction (novel or short stories) published in 2017.
Katherine Anne Porter Award in Literature
NOY HOLLAND
$20,000 to a writer of prose whose achievements and dedication to the literary profession have been demonstrated.
Rosenthal Family Foundation Award in Literature
HANNAH LILLITH ASSADI for Sonora
$10,000 to a young writer of considerable literary talent for a work published in 2017.
Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award in Literature
ATTICUS LISH
$20,000 to a writer whose work merits recognition for the quality of its prose style.
Thornton Wilder Prize for Translation
RED PINE (BILL PORTER)
$20,000 to a practitioner, scholar, or patron who has made a significant contribution to the art of literary translation.
Morton Dauwen Zabel Award in Literature
ELAINE SCARRY
$10,000 to a poet, writer of fiction, or critic of progressive, original, and experimental tendencies.
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS
The American Academy of Arts and Letters was founded in 1898 as an honor society of the country’s leading architects, artists, composers, and writers. Early members include William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, Julia Ward Howe, Henry James, Edward MacDowell, Theodore Roosevelt, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John Singer Sargent, and Edith Wharton. The Academy’s 250 members are elected for life and pay no dues.
In addition to electing new members as vacancies occur, the Academy seeks to foster and sustain an interest in Literature, Music, and the Fine Arts by administering over 70 awards and prizes, exhibiting art and manuscripts, funding performances of new works of musical theater, and purchasing artwork for donation to museums across the country.