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Benjamin Percy Receives 2008 Whiting Writers' Award
Benjamin Percy has been named as one of ten writers to receive a 2008 Whiting Writers' Award from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation. The ten Whiting Awards of $50,000 each have been given annually since 1985 to writers of exceptional talent and promise in early career.
The Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation is dedicated to the support of the humanities and of creative writing. Since its inception, the Whiting Writers' Awards program has awarded more than $6 million to 240 poets, fiction and nonfiction writers, and playwrights. Among the past recipients who have achieved acclaim and prominence in their field are Denis Johnson, Jorie Graham, Kim Edwards, William T. Vollman, Sarah Ruhl, Mark Doty, Jeffrey Eugenides, David Foster Wallace, and Colson Whitehead. This year’s winners – three of whom have yet to publish their first books – represent an array of styles and backgrounds. There are five fiction writers, three poets, one nonfiction writer and one playwright. “It’s a great pleasure to see what fine work is coming out of this year’s group of award recipients, in all its variousness and vigor, ” said Barbara Bristol, the Director of the Writers’ Program. “These writers are strikingly well-traveled in imagination if not in fact. We expect we will hear from them again and again in the years to come.” The 2008 recipients were announced at a ceremony at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York on Wednesday, October 29. Dr. Robert L. Belknap, President of the Foundation, and trustee Kate Douglas Torrey presented the ten writers with their awards. Read Ames Tribune article about award.
