The MRS. GILES WHITING FOUNDATION is dedicated to the support of the humanities and of creative writing.

Seven universities with distinguished graduate programs in the humanities receive yearly grants from the Whiting Foundation to support their best scholars as they complete their dissertations. Doctoral students at Bryn Mawr, University of Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale are eligible. Each university sets up its own procedures to select its Fellows; most use a jury of faculty members from various disciplines within the graduate school of the Arts and Sciences. Applicants to this program apply to the committee within their schools. The Foundation has no other program to assist students.

Beginning in 2001, the Foundation implemented a program designed to recognize outstanding teachers with a better chance for the properly rewarded and fulfilling academic careers that are sometimes reserved for scholars totally committed to their research. Junior faculty at Baruch College, Brooklyn College, and Kenyon College are eligible for paid sabbaticals and research fellowships.

Since 1985, the Foundation has supported creative writing through the Whiting Writers Awards which are given annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. The awards, of $50,000 each, are based on accomplishment and promise. Candidates are proposed by nominators from across the country whose experience and vocations bring them in contact with individuals of extraordinary talent. Winners are chosen by a selection committee, a small group of recognized writers, literary scholars, and editors, appointed annually by the Foundation. Both nominators and selectors serve anonymously. The Foundation does not accept applications to the Writers' Program.

For a list of the 2008 Whiting Writers' Awards Recipients, click here.
For a printable PDF version of the 2008 press release, click here.

Read a list of frequently asked questions about the nomination and selection process of the Whiting Writers' Awards.

Archives:
        • For a list of the 2007 Whiting Writers' Awards Recipients, click here.
        • For a list of the 2006 Whiting Writers' Awards Recipients, click here.
        • For a list of the 2005 Whiting Writers' Awards Recipients, click here.
        • For a list of the 2004 Whiting Writers' Awards Recipients, click here.
        • For a complete list of past Whiting Writers' Awards recipients, click here.