The Whiting Foundation presented its 2018 Whiting Awards to ten emerging writers in drama, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in New York City on March 21. The prestigious awards are made annually on the basis of “early accomplishment and the promise of great work to come.”
In keeping with longstanding tradition, each winner received a new Library of America volume in addition to a $50,000 prize. As it has in the past, the Whiting Foundation’s selection committee matched each winner with a title in the Library of America series based on a sensed affinity or the hope that the winners will discover something valuable in the LOA book.
The 2018 Whiting Award winners and their categories are listed below, accompanied by the titles of the LOA volumes they were awarded. (Each book title links to the relevant page on our site.) More details about this year’s winners, along with samples of their work, are available at The Paris Review.
Anne Boyer (Poetry and Nonfiction)
Susan Sontag: Essays of the 1960s & 70sPatty Yumi Cottrell (Fiction)
Dashiell Hammett: Complete NovelsNathan Alan Davis (Drama)
Zora Neale Hurston: Novels & StoriesHansol Jung (Drama)
Thornton Wilder: Collected Plays & Writings on TheaterRickey Laurentiis (Poetry)
James Weldon Johnson: WritingsAntoinette Nwandu (Drama)
Eugene O’Neill: 1913–1920Tommy Pico (Poetry)
Gertrude Stein: Writings 1903–1932Brontez Purnell (Fiction)
Tennessee Williams: Plays 1937–1955Esmé Weijun Wang (Nonfiction)
Dawn Powell: Novels 1944–1962Weike Wang (Fiction)
Vladimir Nabokov: Novels and Memoirs 1941–1951
As always, Library of America is proud to play a supporting role in this valuable source of support for the literary community. We salute this year’s winners—and hope that their LOA books will be a source of inspiration and encouragement going forward.
