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Since its inception in 1985, the program has awarded more than $5 million to 210 poets, fiction and nonfiction writers, and playwrights. Among the past recipients who have later achieved prominence in their field are Jonathan Franzen, William T. Vollman, Mary Karr, Colson Whitehead, Tony Kushner, Jeffrey Eugenides, August Wilson, Jorie Graham, Cristina Garcia, and Suzan-Lori Parks. This years’s winners include one playwright, three fiction writers, five poets and one who writes both poetry and fiction. "The Whiting Awards again celebrate an exceptional group of writers who, this year, come from all over the country, from Florida to Alaska," says Barbara K. Bristol, Director of the Writers’ Program. "All of them have published a first book, and the smaller, independent presses are well represented. This year, too, there is a particularly strong showing for poetry. We are grateful to our selectors for ferreting out some of the most exciting and gifted writers who are now beginning to publish their work." The 2005 recipients were announced at a ceremony at Peterson Hall in New York on Thursday, October 27. Dr. Robert L. Belknap, President of the Foundation, and trustee Peter Pennoyer presented the ten writers with their awards. The keynote speaker of the evening was Grace Paley, one of Americas’s most revered short story writers. Born in the Bronx, New York, in 1922, Paley established a reputation as a writer with a remarkably supple gift for language with her highly acclaimed collections, The Little Disturbances of Man (1959), Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974), and Later the Same Day (1985). Her Collected Stories was a Finalist for the National Book Award in 1994. She is also the author of a collection of nonfiction, Just As I Thought (1998), two books of poetry and her collected poems, Begin Again (2000). The ten writers recognized this year for their extraordinary talent and promise are: Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, fiction. Her first novel, Madeleine is Sleeping, was published by Harcourt in 2004. She lives in Los Angeles. Thomas Sayers Ellis, poetry. His first book, The Maverick Room (Graywolf Press), was published this year. He teaches at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Nell Freudenberger, fiction. Her collection of stories, Lucky Girls, (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2003) won the PEN/Malamud Award. She lives in New York City. Rinne Groff, plays. Her play, The Ruby Sunrise, will open on November 1 at the Public Theater. She teaches at New York Universitys’s Tisch School of the Arts. Ilya Kaminsky, poetry. His book, Dancing in Odessa, was published this year by Tupelo Press. Born in the former Soviet Union, he now lives in Berkeley. Seth Kantner, fiction. His first book, Ordinary Wolves, was published by Milkweed Editions in 2004. He was born and raised on the Alaskan tundra and lives in Kotzebue. John Keene, fiction/poetry. His first novel, Annotations, was published by New Directions in 1995. A professor at Northwestern University, he lives in Chicago and Jersey City. Dana Levin, poetry. She is the author of two books, In the Surgical Theatre and Wedding Day, both published by Copper Canyon Press. She lives in Santa Fe. Spencer Reece, poetry. His book, The Clerks’s Tale, was published by Mariner Books in 2004. He lives in Juno Beach, Florida. Tracy K. Smith, poetry. Her first collection of poems, The Body’s Question, was published by Graywolf in 2003. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. For more detailed biographies of the 2005 winners, click here. Whiting Writers’ Awards candidates are proposed by about a hundred anonymous nominators from across the country whose experience and vocations give them knowledge about individuals of extraordinary talent. Winners are chosen by a small anonymous selection committee of recognized writers, literary scholars, and editors, appointed annually by the Foundation. At four meetings over the course of the year, the selectors discuss the candidates’ work and gradually winnow the list. They then recommend up to ten writers for awards to the Foundation’s Trustees. The Foundation accepts nominations only from the designated nominators. The Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation was established in 1963 by Flora E. Whiting. In 1972, her unrestricted bequest of over $10 million enabled the Foundation to establish the Whiting Fellowships in the Humanities for doctoral candidates in their dissertation year. In the years since, the Foundation has annually awarded grants to Bryn Mawr, University of Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale to fund these Fellowships, the recipients of which are selected by each institution. The Foundation created the Whiting Writer’ Awards in 1985 under the direction of Gerald Freund, who organized and led the program until his death in 1997. For more information about the selection process, click here. 
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