POETS & WRITERSGRANTS & AWARDSRecent Winners
87LEAH NAOMI GREEN
Academy of American Poets
Walt Whitman AwardDAWN LUNDY MARTIN
Claremont Graduate University
Kingsley Tufts Poetry AwardDIANA KHOI NGUYEN
Claremont Graduate University
Kate Tufts Discovery AwardAcademy of American Poets
WALT WHITMAN AWARD
Leah Naomi Green of Greensboro,
North Carolina, won the 2019 Walt
Whitman Award for The More
Extravagant Feast. 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 2020. Her work
will also be featured on the Academy of
American Poets website and in American
Poets, and copies of her book will be
distributed to thousands of Academy
members. Li-Young Lee 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. [email protected]
http://www.poets.org/academy-american-poets/prizes
/walt-whitman-award
American Academy of Arts and
Letters
LITERATURE AWARDS
Thirteen writers received awards in
literature from the American Academy
of Arts and Letters. Fiction writer Lydia
Millet of Tucson received the $25,000
Award of Merit, given in alternating
years to a writer or artist; this year
the award was given to a short story
writer. Fiction writer Sally Rooney of
Dublin, Ireland, received the $20,000
E. M. Forster Award, given annu-
ally to a young writer from the United
Kingdom or Ireland for a stay in the
United States; Paul Muldoon and Colm
Tóibín judged. Poet D. A. Powell of San
Francisco received the $20,000 John
Updike Award, given biennially to a
writer whose work has “demonstrated
consistent excellence.” Poet and prose
writer John Keene of Newark, New
Jersey, received the $20,000 Harold D.
Vursell Memorial Award, given annually
to a writer whose work “merits recogni-
tion for the quality of its prose style.”
Poet Aracelis Girmay of New York Citywon the $10,000 Addison M. Metcalf
Award, given biennially to a “young
writer of great promise.” Tommy Orange
of Angels Camp, California, won the
$10,000 Rosenthal Family Founda-
tion Award for his novel, There There
(Knopf ). The annual award is given to
a “young writer of considerable literary
talent” who has published a book dur-
ing the previous year. Arts and Letters
Awards in Literature were given to poets
Marilyn Chin of San Diego and Eileen
Myles of Marfa, Texas, and New York
City; fiction writer John McManus of
Norfolk, Virginia; fiction and nonfiction
writer Siri Hustvedt of New York City;
nonfiction writer Chris Hedges of
Princeton, New Jersey; and translator
and nonfiction writer Robert Alter of
Berkeley, California. They each received
$10,000. The annual awards are given to
poets, fiction writers, nonfiction writers,
and translators to “honor exceptional
accomplishment” in literature. Jane
Delury of Baltimore received the $5,000
Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction for
her novel, The Balcony (Little, Brown).
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 Henri Cole,
John Guare, Amy Hempel, Jayne Anne
Phillips, and Joy Williams. There is no
application process.
American Academy of Arts and Letters,
633 West 155th Street, New York, NY- (212) 368-5900.
http://www.artsandletters.org
American Poetry Review
HONICKMAN FIRST BOOK PRIZE
Taneum Bambrick of Ellensburg, Wash-
ington, won the 2019 APR/Honickman
First Book Prize for Vantage. She re-
ceived $3,000, and her collection will be
published in September by the American
Poetry Review with distribution by
Copper Canyon Press through Consor-
tium. Sharon Olds judged. The annual
award is given for a poetry collection
by a writer who has not yet published
a book of poems. The next deadline is
martin: richard kelly O c t ob er 31.