Liza Birkenmeier, Elwin Cotman, Emil Ferris, Samuel Kọ́láwọlé, Claire Luchette, Karisma Price, Aisha Sabatini Sloan, Shubha Sunder, Sofi Thanhauser, and Annie Wenstrup (photos: Beowulf Sheehan)
Ten writers received $50,000 and a Library of America volume apiece at the 40th annual Whiting Awards, announced the evening of Wednesday, April 9, at a ceremony in New York City. The winners, selected in categories of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama, join the ranks of such literary luminaries as Denis Johnson, David Foster Wallace, Deborah Eisenberg, and Ocean Vuong.
LOA volumes have long been the Whiting’s equivalent of an Oscar statue, given to winners as a mark of their achievement (it’s the rare trophy you might actually want to take off your bookshelf sometime).
But the LOA connections don’t end there: Eduardo C. Corral, whose work appears in LOA’s recent Latino Poetry anthology, won a Whiting in 2011. Past Influences columnists Catherine Lacey and Ling Ma took prizes in 2016 and 2020. And former LOA editor in chief Geoffrey O’Brien won for nonfiction in 1988, the same year Jonathan Franzen, Lydia Davis, and William T. Vollmann notched accolades for fiction.
“These writers demonstrate astounding range; each has invented the tools they needed to carve out their narratives and worlds,” said Courtney Hodell, Whiting’s Director of Literary Programs, of this year’s honorees. “Taken as a whole, their work shows a sharply honed sensitivity to our history, both individual and collective, and a passionate curiosity as to where a deeper understanding of that history can take us.”
The 2025 Whiting Award recipients are listed below, along with the titles of the LOA books they picked for their prize. (Each book title links to the relevant page on our site.)
Liza Berkenmeier
Donald Barthelme: Collected Stories
Elwin Cotman
Ann Petry: The Street, The Narrows
Emil Ferris
William Maxwell: Early Novels and Stories
Samuel Kọ́láwọlé
Bernard Malamud: Novels and Stories of the 1960s
Claire Luchette
Dawn Powell: Novels 1944–1962
Karisma Price
American Speeches: Political Oratory from the Revolution to the Civil War
Aisha Sabatini Sloan
James Baldwin: Collected Essays
Shubha Sunder
Henry James: Complete Stories 1884–1891
Sofi Thanhauser
Rachel Carson: Silent Spring & Other Writings on the Environment
Annie Wenstrup
Rudolfo Anaya: Bless Me, Ultima; Tortuga; Alburquerque
Congratulations to this year’s winners! We hope that their LOA books will provide much inspiration and enjoyment in the years ahead.
