Recent Winners
Academy of American Poets
WALT WHITMAN AWARD
Emily Skaja of Cincinnati won the 2018 Walt Whitman Award for her poetry collection, Brute. 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 2019. 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. Joy Harjo 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
Fifteen writers received awards in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Fiction writer Jon McGregor of Nottingham, 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. Fiction writer Noy Holland of Amherst, Massachusetts, received the $20,000 Katherine Anne Porter Award, given biennially to a prose writer who has demonstrated significant achievement. Fiction writer Atticus Lish of New York City received the $20,000 Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award, given annually to an exceptional prose writer. Hannah Lillith Assadi of New York City won the $10,000 Rosenthal Family Foundation Award for her novel, Sonora (Soho Press). The annual award honors a book published in the previous year. Bill Porter, who writes under the pen name Red Pine, of Port Townsend, Washington, won the $20,000 Thornton Wilder Prize for Translation, given biennially to a translator, scholar, or patron who has made a significant contribution to the art of literary translation. Nonfiction writer Elaine Scarry of Cambridge, Massachusetts, received the $10,000 Morton Dauwen Zabel Award, given biennially to a poet, fiction writer, or nonfiction writer of progressive, original, and experimental work. Arts and Letters Awards in Literature were given to poets Ishion Hutchinson of Ithaca, New York, and Brenda Shaughnessy of Verona, New Jersey; fiction writers Mary Gaitskill and Rick Moody, both of New York City, Marlon James of Minneapolis, and Mary Robison of Gainesville, Florida; nonfiction writer Kay Redfield Jamison of Baltimore; and translator and nonfiction writer Clare Cavanagh of Chicago. They each received $10,000. The annual awards are given to poets, fiction writers, nonfiction writers, and translators to “honor exceptional accomplishment in literature.” Emily Fridlund of Ithaca, New York, received the $5,000 Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction for her novel, History of Wolves (Atlantic Monthly Press). The annual award honors a debut book of fiction published in the previous year. The awards are given by members of the Academy; this year’s selection committee members were Russell Banks, Henri Cole, Amy Hempel, Anne Tyler, 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. www.artsandletters.org
American Poetry Review
HONICKMAN FIRST BOOK PRIZE
Jacob Saenz of Chicago won the 2018 APR/Honickman First Book Prize for his poetry collection, Throwing the Crown. He received $3,000, and his collection will be published in September by American Poetry Review with distribution by Copper Canyon Press through Consortium. Gregory Pardlo judged. The annual award is given for a poetry collection by a writer who has not published a book of poems. The next deadline is October 31.
American Poetry Review, Honickman First Book Prize, 320 South Broad Street, Hamilton #313, Philadelphia, PA 19102. www.aprweb.org
Ashland Creek Press
SISKIYOU PRIZE
of Phoenicia,
