New York, March 11, 2022 – The American Academy of Arts and Letters announced today the names of 16 writers who will receive its 2022 awards in literature. The awards will be presented at the Academy’s annual Ceremonial in May. The literature prizes, totaling over $200,000, honor both established and emerging writers of fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry. The Academy’s 300 members propose candidates, and a rotating committee of writers selects winners. This year’s award committee members were Amy Hempel (chair), Louise Glück, John Guare, Edward Hirsch, Sigrid Nunez, Caryl Phillips, and Joy Williams.
$25,000 to an outstanding poet.
Eight awards of $10,000 each honoring exceptional accomplishment in any
genre.
JO ANN BEARD
ALESHEA HARRIS
SARAH MANGUSO
JOYELLE MCSWEENEY
SUSAN BRIND MORROW
DOUG PEACOCK
ADRIAN NATHAN WEST
$20,000 to an exceptional playwright.
$5,000 for a work of first fiction (novel or short stories) published in 2021.
for Brood
$20,000 to a prose writer whose achievements and dedication to the literary profession have been demonstrated.
$10,000 to a young writer of considerable literary talent for a work published in 2021.
for The Five Wounds
$20,000 to a writer whose work merits recognition for the quality of its prose style.
$20,000 for a significant contribution to the art of literary translation.
$10,000 to a writer of progressive, original, and experimental tendencies.
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, Mark Twain, and Edith Wharton. The Academy’s 300 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 totaling more than $1 million, exhibiting art and manuscripts, funding performances of new works of musical theater, purchasing artwork for donation to museums across the country, and presenting talks and concerts.