Recent Winners
Academy for Teachers
STORIES OUT OF SCHOOL FLASH FICTION CONTEST
Jennifer Kaplan of New York City won the 2020 Stories Out of School Flash Fiction Contest for “Field Trip.” She received $1,000. Allie Torgan of Los Angeles was the runner-up for “The Sub.” She received $500. Both of their stories were published on Electric Literature. Susan Choi judged. The annual award is given for flash fiction about teachers and school. As of this writing, the next deadline has not been set.
Academy for Teachers, Stories Out of School Flash Fiction Contest, 10 West 90th Street, New York, NY 10024. Rene Marion, Dean of Fellows.
academyforteachers.org/stories-out-of-school
Academy of American Poets
WALT WHITMAN AWARD
Threa Almontaser of New York City won the 2020 Walt Whitman Award for The Wild Fox of Yemen. 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 2021. 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. Harryette Mullen 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.
www.poets.org/academy-american-poets/prizes/walt-whitman-award
American Academy of Arts and Letters
LITERATURE AWARDS
Eighteen writers received awards in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Poet, fiction writer, and nonfiction writer of Tucson, Arizona, received the $100,000 Christopher Lightfoot Walker Award, given biennially to a writer who has made a significant contribution to American literature. Nonfiction writer of New York City received the triennial $25,000 Blake-Dodd Prize for achievement in nonfiction. Poet of Bennington, Vermont, received the $20,000 Arthur Rense Poetry Prize, given triennially to an “exceptional poet.” Fiction writer of New York City received the $20,000 Katherine Anne Porter Award, given biennially to “a prose writer whose achievements and dedication to the literary profession have been demonstrated.” Poet of Belfast, Northern Ireland, 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; Jhumpa Lahiri, Colum McCann, and Paul Muldoon judged. Fiction writer of New York City received the $20,000 Benjamin Hadley Danks Award, given in alternate years to a composer, a playwright, and a poet or prose writer; this year’s award was given in literature. Nonfiction writer of Chicago received the $20,000 Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award, given annually to a writer whose work “merits recognition for the quality of its prose style.” Translator of New York City received the $20,000 Thornton Wilder Prize for Translation, given biennially for “a significant contribution to the art of literary translation.” Fiction writer of New York City won the $10,000 Rosenthal Family Foundation Award for her novel Lost Children Archive (Knopf). The annual award is given to a “young writer of considerable literary achievement” who has published a book during the previous year. Poet of Berkeley, California, received the $10,000 Morton Dauwen Zabel Award, given biennially in rotation to a poet, fiction writer, or critic “of progressive, original, and experimental tendencies”; this year’s award was given in poetry. Arts and Letters Awards in Literature were given of Lowell, Massachusetts; poet and nonfiction writer of New York City; fiction writers of New York City and of Los Angeles; nonfiction writers of Lima, Peru, and Washington D.C., and of Nashville; and translator of Santiago, Chile. They each received $10,000. The annual awards are given to poets, fiction writers, nonfiction writers, and translators to “honor exceptional accomplishment” in literature. of Baltimore received the $5,000 Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction for her novel, The Parisian (Grove). The annual award honors a debut book of fiction published in the previous year. The awards are given by members of the Academy. There is no application process.
