“Write until your heart is nothing but ashes,” declared Barry Lopez, the National Book award-winning author of Arctic Dreams, addressing the ten winners of the 2008 Whiting Writers’ Awards last night.
Ten authors received a $50,000 check from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation last night. Since 1985, the philanthropic foundation has given emerging creative writers these grants, the nominees selected by “a small group of recognized writers, literary scholars, and editors.” GalleyCat was there with a videocamera–look for ongoing interviews with the winners.
The New York Times rounded up the winners:
“[F]iction writers Mischa Berlinski, Laleh Khadivi, Manuel Muñoz, Benjamin Percy and Lysley Tenorio; the essayist Donovan Hohn; the poets Rick Hilles, Douglas Kearney and Julie Sheehan; and the playwright Dael Orlandersmith.”