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Fair warning: It may be tough to find some of the 2019 Whiting Award winners on the shelves of your local bookstore. Most of the emerging writers have little more than a single widely published book to their name. A couple of them don't even have that.

But what the 10 new Whiting recipients lack in publishing credits and international awards, they more than make up for in talent and promise — at least, according to the prize's judges, who are bestowing $50,000 on each of them in the hopes of giving the winners "a first opportunity to devote themselves fully to writing, and the recognition has a significant impact."

The winners announced at a ceremony Wednesday night in New York City, listed in alphabetical order, are: poet Kayleb Rae Candrilli, poet Tyree Daye, novelist Hernan Diaz, playwright Michael R. Jackson, nonfiction writer Terese Marie Mailhot, nonfiction writer Nadia Owusu, short fiction writer Nafissa Thompson-Spires, novelist Merritt Tierce, poet Vanessa Angélica Villarreal, and playwright Lauren Yee.


"Every year, our corps of expert anonymous nominators point us to some of the most exciting and vital work happening today," 

, who oversees the awards, explained in a statement released Wednesday. "These names may be new to us, but they're writing the future of literature in this country."


If the names above are a little difficult for the average reader to recognize, the names on the list they're joining — the 

 dating back to the prize's inception in 1985 — share no such issue. 

, among many others, won the Whiting before going on to see their dust jackets featured in bookstore displays around the world.


With that in mind, here are some brief introductions to this year's winners, paired with what the Whiting judges had to say about their work.

, is a portrait of an upbringing in desolate rural Pennsylvania that — according to Whiting judges — evinces "savage grace as it lays bare the violence and isolation of a trans person's coming of age."
The judges explain that 

, a poetry collection, offers "pictures of a river life are strung together in language that is clear, lucid, unexpected, and often unforgettable: image-making of the highest order."


 for fiction — sets out to explore "two kinds of wilderness: the immensely taxing newness of the American West and the still-forming interiority of a Swedish immigrant desperate to find a way back home."
In a first for the Whiting, 

 has been recognized for his work in musicals. (Tony Kushner, a 

until after his win.) Jackson's work-in-progress, 

, which premiers in New York City in May, "is robustly intelligent, unflinchingly honest, dizzyingly screwball, and a sheer delight."


, a First Nation Canadian writer, took on her own life story in a debut memoir, 

, that bears "a fierce and unyielding commitment to creating an unlikeable — which is to say, fully human — female narrator."



's debut nonfiction book hasn't even been 

, but the urban planner's lyric essay chapbook, 

, caught Whiting judges' attention nevertheless. They describe it as a "profound meditation on rootlessness, hybridity, and resilience."
This may well be one name literary awards watchers recognize:

. Judges say she writes with a "bold new voice — young, gifted, black, unafraid of its own contradictions, and powerful enough to take the writer anywhere she wishes to go."

Judges described 

, as "clear-eyed, dark-hearted, and mordantly funny." The author was honored on the National Book Foundation's 

 deploys lines that "blaze with anger and sympathy" in a work that places readers in a "porous border world of dual (or multiple) identities."
Playwright 

 of the 2019 recipients, "examines the legacy of the Khmer Rouge in a play [

Arts and Culture

The Thread® - Books and Literary News

Colin Dwyer

Author

The novelists, poets and playwrights won Wednesday partly for their work so far, but also for the promise they've shown. If previous winners are an indication, it's a promise they're likely to keep.

'The Future of Literature': Whiting Awards celebrate 10 emerging writers

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