The 2013 MacArthur Fellows will be the first class of fellows to receive a $625,000 no-strings-attached stipend (compared to the previous $500,000 stipend). This year’s class will be revealed on Wednesday, September 25, 2013 and the awards are paid out over five years.
Last year’s list of 23 “genius grant” fellows included novelists Junot Diaz (pictured) and Dinaw Mengestu. Other writers on the list were journalist and author David Finkel and historian Dylan C. Penningroth. Here’s more about the program:
The MacArthur Fellows Program awards unrestricted fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and the potential to make significant contributions in the future. There are three criteria for selection of Fellows: exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work.