Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes

The Donald Windham Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes is an American literary award which offers prizes in three categories: fiction, nonfiction and drama. The award was established at Yale University in 2011 with the first prizes presented in 2013.^[1][2][3] Administered by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, the award recognizes English language writers from anywhere in the world. The mission of the award is to call attention to literary achievement and provide writers the opportunity to focus on their work independent of financial concerns. Up to nine prizes are awarded annually. Winners receive a citation and an unrestricted remuneration of $150,000. The individual prizes are among the richest literary prize amounts in the world, if not the richest in certain categories.^[1] The award's endowment is from the estate of writer Donald Windham. Sandy Campbell (male) was his companion of 45 years.^[1]

Recipients

2016

The prizewinners were announced on February 29, 2016.^[4] The prize highlighted some works by each author.

Nonfiction

• Hilton Als (United States) - White Girls (2013) and The Women (1996)^[5]
• Stanley Crouch (United States) - Don’t the Moon Look Lonesome? (2000) and Ain’t No Ambulances for No Nigguhs Tonight (1972)^[6]
• Helen Garner (Australia) - This House of Grief (2014)^[7]

Drama

• Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (United States) - An Octoroon and War^[8]
• Hannah Moscovitch (Canada) - East of Berlin (2007) and This is War (2013)^[9]
• Abbie Spallen (Ireland) - Lally the Scut (2015) and Pumpgirl (2006)^[10]

Fiction

• Tessa Hadley (United Kingdom) - Clever Girl (2013) and The Past (2016) ^[11]
• C. E. Morgan (United States) - All the Living (2009) and The Sport of Kings (2016)^[12]
• Jerry Pinto (India) - Em and the Big Hoom (2012)^[13]

2015

The prizewinners with the following citations were announced by Yale president Peter Salovey on February 24, 2015.^[14]

Non-Fiction

• Edmund de Waal - "Edmund de Waal’s sure narrative instinct and lyrical imagination inform a deeply felt examination of the hold that objects have on our personal and collective memory."^[15]
• Geoff Dyer - "Omnivorously curious and psychologically probing, Geoff Dyer’s writings reinvent again and again the possibilities of nonfiction, discovering as many new subjects as he does ways of writing about them."^[16]
• John Jeremiah Sullivan - "John Jeremiah Sullivan’s wide-ranging, exuberant essays engage the full spectrum of American life with passion, precision, and wit."^[17]

Drama

• Jackie Sibblies Drury - "Jackie Sibblies Drury deftly blends historical inquiry and meta-theatrical experiment to challenge assumptions about race, performance, and individual responsibility."^[18]
• Helen Edmundson - "Helen Edmundson’s ambitious plays distill historical complexities through characters whose passions and ethical dilemmas mirror and illuminate a larger political landscape"^[19]
• Debbie Tucker Green - "Pushing speech and silence to the limit, Debbie Tucker Green’s plays expose the brutal choices of individuals bound by the imperatives of family, society, and love."^[20]

Fiction

• Teju Cole - "Teju Cole’s peripatetic narrators, like his prose, revel in the possibilities and limitations of global urbanity, navigating the fine line between choice and circumstance, perception and memory."^[21]
• Helon Habila - "Helon Habila is that rare combination of storyteller and stylist who challenges expectations while deepening our empathy for ordinary people confronting extraordinary times."^[22]
• Ivan Vladislavic - "Ivan Vladislavić’s fiction explores the uncomfortable aftermath of apartheid through inventive meditations on the complex intersection of history, politics, and art."^[23]

2014

The prizewinners with the following citations were announced by Yale president Peter Salovey on March 7, 2014.^[24]

Non-Fiction

• John Vaillant (United States) - "John Vaillant writes gripping narratives that combine science, geography, history and anthropology to convey his passionate commitment to preserving natural resources in an environmentally threatened world."^[25]
• Pankaj Mishra (India) - "Pursuing high standards of literary style, Pankaj Mishra gives us new narratives about the evolution of modern Asia. He charts the journey from the Indian small town to the metropolis and rebuffs imperialist clichés with equal verve."^[26]

Drama

• Kia Corthron (United States) - "Through her command of dramatic spectacle, Kia Corthron places often unheard and marginalized characters within a historical and political context that gives their lives an urgent and poetic resonance."^[27]
• Sam Holcroft (United Kingdom) - "Sam Holcroft’s plays explore the routinized and expressive registers of language, gesture, and role-playing, walking the uncomfortably thin line between spectatorship and complicity."^[28]
• Noëlle Janaczewska (Australia) - "Noëlle Janaczewska brings innovative stagecraft and a questioning voice to plays that translate cultural and political tensions into drama as complex as it is illuminating."^[29]

Fiction

• Aminatta Forna (Sierra Leone) - "Aminatta Forna writes through and beyond personal experience to speak to the wider world in subtly constructed narratives that reveal the ongoing aftershocks of living through violence and war."^[30]
• Jim Crace (United Kingdom) - "Jim Crace's ever-varied novels return us to the body, to ceremony and to community in a disenchanted world, transforming the indifferent and the repugnant alike into things of beauty."^[31]
• Nadeem Aslam (Pakistan) - "Nadeem Aslam’s deftly crafted novels explore historical and political trauma with lyricism and profound compassion."^[32]

2013

The prizewinners with the following citations were announced by Yale president-elect Peter Salovey on March 4, 2013.^{[33][34][35][36]} Each winner received $150,000.^[37]

Non-Fiction

• Jonny Steinberg (South Africa) – "Using a novelistic style that gives everyday people heroic complexity and scale, Jonny Steinberg allows us to encounter lives that enlarge our empathy and sharpen our understanding of the human condition."^[38]
• Jeremy Scahill (United States) – "Jeremy Scahill’s investigative reporting is in the best tradition of speaking truth to power, waging a political campaign by journalistic means, indefatigable in its detail and international in outlook."^[39]
• Adina Hoffman (United States) – "In a land where even the most cautious nonfiction can draw howls of protest, Adina Hoffman combines fastidious listening, even-handed research, and prose so engaged that it makes the long-vanished visible again."^[40]

Drama

• Naomi Wallace (United States) – "Naomi Wallace mines historical situations in plays that are muscular, devastating, and unwavering."^[41]
• Tarell Alvin McCraney (United States) – "Tarell Alvin McCraney’s working class characters inhabit an extraordinary mythic universe, speaking a poetic language through which we grasp the spiritual stature of embattled people."^[42]
• Stephen Adly Guirgis (United States) – "Stephen Adly Guirgis writes dramatic dialogue with passion and humor, creating characters who live on the edge, and whose linguistic bravado reinvigorates the American vernacular."^[43]

Fiction

• Zoë Wicomb (South Africa) – "Zoë Wicomb’s subtle, lively language and beautifully crafted narratives explore the complex entanglements of home, and the continuing challenges of being in the world."^[44]
• James Salter (United States) – "Sentence by sentence, James Salter’s elegantly natural prose has a precision and clarity which make ordinary words swing wide open."^[45]
• Tom McCarthy (United Kingdom) – "Tom McCarthy constructs strange worlds where we find reflective echoes of our own and meditations on the meaning and making of art."^[46]

References

1. Charles McGrath. "A Writer’s Estate to Yield $150,000 Literary Prizes", New York Times, June 17, 2011.
2. Carolyn Kellogg (June 20, 2011). "Yale to launch $150,000 writing award". LA Times. Retrieved October 11, 2012.
3. David Brensilver (June 22, 2011). "Yale Launches Literary Prize Program". New Haven Independent. Retrieved October 11, 2012.
4. "Windham-Campbell Prizes: The Phone Call of a Lifetime". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 29, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
5. "Hilton Als". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 29, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
6. "Stanley Crouch". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 29, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
7. "Helen Garner". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 29, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
8. "Branden Jacobs-Jenkins". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 29, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
9. "Hannah Moscovitch". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 29, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
10. "Abbie Spallen". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 29, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
11. "Tessa Hadley". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 29, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
12. "C. E. Morgan". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 29, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
13. "Jerry Pinto". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 29, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
14. "Yale Announces 2015 Prizewinners". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 24, 2015. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
15. "Prize Citation for Edmund de Waal". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 24, 2015. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
16. "Prize Citation for Geoff Dyer". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 24, 2015. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
17. "Prize Citation for John Jeremiah Sullivan". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 24, 2015. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
18. "Prize Citation for Jackie Sibblies Drury". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 24, 2015. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
19. "Prize Citation for Helen Edmundson". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 24, 2015. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
20. "Prize Citation for Debbie Tucker Green". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 24, 2015. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
21. "Prize Citation for Teju Cole". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 24, 2015. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
22. "Prize Citation for Helon Habila". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 24, 2015. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
23. "Prize Citation for Ivan Vladislavić". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 24, 2015. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
24. "2014 Prizewinners Announcement". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
25. "Prize Citation for John Vaillant". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
26. "Prize Citation for Pankaj Mishra". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
27. "Prize Citation for Kia Corthron". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
28. "Prize Citation for Sam Holcroft". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
29. "Prize Citation for Noëlle Janaczewska". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
30. "Prize Citation for Aminatta Forna". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
31. "Prize Citation for Jim Crace". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
32. "Prize Citation for Nadeem Aslam". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
33. "2013 Prize Winners". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. Retrieved September 17, 2013.
34. Adam W. Kepler (March 4, 2013). "Winners of Hefty New Literary Prizes Announced". New York Times. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
35. R.D. Pohl (March 6, 2013). "Yale awards nine writers its inaugural Windham Campbell Literature Prizes". Buffalo News. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
36. David Ng (March 4, 2013). "Windham-Campbell, new Yale literary prize, honors three playwrights". LA Times. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
37. Dorie Baker (March 4, 2013). "Yale awards $1.35 million to nine writers". YaleNews. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
38. "Prize Citation for Jonny Steinberg". Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
39. "Prize Citation for Jeremy Scahill". Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
40. "Prize Citation for Adina Hoffman". Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
41. "Prize Citation for Naomi Wallace". Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
42. "Prize Citation for Tarell Alvin McCraney". Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
43. "Prize Citation for Stephen Adly Guirgis". Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
44. "Prize Citation for Zoë Wicomb". Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
45. "Prize Citation for James Salter". Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
46. "Prize Citation for Tom McCarthy". Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes. Retrieved February 3, 2014.

External links

• The Windham Campbell Prizes, official website.