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AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS
ANNOUNCES 2008 LITERATURE AWARD WINNERS

New York, March 12, 2008 -- The American Academy of Arts and Letters announced today the names of 19 writers who will receive its 2008 awards in literature. The awards will be presented in New York in May at the Academy's annual Ceremonial. The literature prizes, over $200,000, honor both established and emerging writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The Academy's 250 members nominate candidates, and a rotating committee of writers selects winners. This year's committee members were Mary Gordon, Allan Gurganus, A.R. Gurney, Edward Hoagland, Charles Simic, Jane Smiley, Rosanna Warren, and Edmund White.

Academy Awards in Literature

Eight Academy Awards in Literature of $7500 each are given annually to honor exceptional accomplishment in any genre.

Dan Chiasson
Brian Doyle
Rikki Ducornet
Will Eno		 Edith Grossman
Fanny Howe
Richard Nelson
Mona Simpson

Michael Braude Award for Light Verse

$5000 for work, in English, from any country.   Christopher Reid

Benjamin H. Danks Award

$20,000 to a promising young writer of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry.   A.E. Stallings

E.M. Forster Award

$20,000 to a young writer from the United Kingdom or Ireland for a stay in the United States. Award jury: Alison Lurie, J. D. McClatchy, Ian McEwan.   John Lanchester

Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction

$5000 for the best work of first fiction (novel or short stories) published in 2007.   Frances Hwang, Transparency

Katherine Anne Porter Award

$20,000 given biennially to a prose writer whose achievements and dedication to the literary profession have been demonstrated, and for whom the award will provide a gift of time and some relief from secular obligations.
John Edgar Wideman

Arthur Rense Poetry Prize

$20,000 given triennially to an exceptional poet who may not have received due recognition over the course of a long career.   Hayden Carruth

Rome Fellowships in Literature

A one-year residency (2008-2009) at the American Academy in Rome.   Brad Kessler and Dana Spiotta

Rosenthal Family Foundation Award

$5000 to a young novelist of considerable literary talent for a work.   Richard Lange, Dead Boys: Stories

Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award

$10,000 to a writer whose work merits recognition for the quality of its prose style.   Maxine Swann

Morton Dauwen Zabel Award

$10,000 to a fiction writer with progressive, original, and experimental tendencies.   Ben Marcus


Press Contact: Jane Bolster, academy@artsandletters.org, (212) 368-5900.