Recent Winners
Academy of American Poets
WALT WHITMAN AWARD
Jenny Xie of New York City won the 2017 Walt Whitman Award for her poetry collection, Eye Level. She received $5,000; a six-week all-expenses-paid residency at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Umbria, Italy; and publication of her book by Graywolf Press in April 2018. Her work will also be featured on the Academy of American Poets website and in American Poets magazine, and copies of her book will be distributed to thousands of Academy members. Juan Felipe Herrera judged. The annual award is given to a poet who has not published a poetry collection in a standard edition. The next deadline is November 1.
Academy of American Poets, Walt Whitman Award, 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038. (212) 274-0343, ext. 13. awards@poets.org
www.poets.org/academy-american-poets/prizes/walt-whitman-award
American Academy of Arts and Letters
LITERATURE AWARDS
Seventeen writers received awards in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Poet Jamaal May of Detroit received the $20,000 Benjamin H. Danks Award, given triennially to an exceptional young writer. Nonfiction writer Elizabeth Kolbert of Williamstown, Massachusetts, received the $25,000 Blake-Dodd Prize, given triennially to a nonfiction writer. Nonfiction writer Robert MacFarlane of Cambridge, England, received the $20,000 E. M. Forster Award, given annually to a young writer from the United Kingdom or Ireland for a stay in the United States; Alison Lurie and Colm Tóibín judged. Nonfiction writer Joan Acocella of New York City received the $20,000 Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award, given annually to a writer whose work merits wider recognition. Fiction writer Dana Spiotta of Syracuse, New York, received the $20,000 John Updike Award, given biennially to a midcareer writer. Poet August Kleinzahler of San Francisco received the $20,000 Arthur Rense Poetry Prize, given triennially to an exceptional poet. Poet Safiya Sinclair of Los Angeles received the $10,000 Addison M. Metcalf Award, given occasionally to a young writer of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, or drama. Karan Mahajan of Austin, Texas, won the $10,000 Rosenthal Family Foundation Award for his novel The Association of Small Bombs (Viking, 2016). The annual award honors a book published in the previous year. Arts and Letters Awards in Literature were given to poets Kathleen Graber of Richmond and Luís Alberto Urrea of Naperville, Illinois; fiction writers Ayad Akhtar of Washington, D.C., Chris Bachelder of Cincinnati, Paul Beatty of New York City, and Jennifer Haigh of Boston; and nonfiction writer and translator Richard Sieburth of New York City. They each received $10,000. Lee Clay Johnson of St. Louis and Charlottesville, Virginia, received the $5,000 Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction for his novel, Nitro Mountain (Knopf, 2016). The annual award honors a debut book of fiction published in the previous year. Fiction writer Judy Blume of Key West, Florida, received the E. B. White Award, given to a writer for achievement in children’s literature. The annual awards are given by members of the Academy; this year’s selection committee included John Guare, Thomas McGuane, Anne Tyler, Rosanna Warren, and Joy Williams. There is no application process.
American Academy of Arts and Letters, 633 West 155th Street, New York, NY 10032. (212) 368-5900.
American Literary Review
LITERARY AWARDS
sam sax of New York City won the 2016 American Literary Review award in poetry for his poem “Psychotherapy.” Courtney Zoffness of New York City won the award in short fiction for her story “Peanuts Aren’t Nuts.” Lara Lillibridge of Lakewood, Ohio, won the award in creative nonfiction for her essay “When We Were Vikings.” They each received $1,000, and their winning work was published in American Literary Review. Melissa Kwasny judged in poetry, Merritt Tierce judged in fiction, and Charles D’Ambrosio judged in creative nonfiction. The annual awards are given for a poem, a short story, and an essay. The next deadline is October 1. American Literary Review, Literary Awards, University of North Texas, 1155 Union Circle #311307, Denton, TX 76203. americanliteraryreview@gmail.com
www.americanliteraryreview.com
American Poetry Review
HONICKMAN FIRST BOOK PRIZE
of Raleigh, North Carolina, won the 2017 APR/Honickman First Book Prize for his poetry collection, . He received $3,000, and his collection will be published in September by with distribution by Copper Canyon Press through Consortium. Gabrielle Calvocoressi judged.
