This national literary awards program was created to identify and support emerging women writers of exceptional promise in recognition of the special contributions women artists make to our culture. The awards program acknowledged the difficulties some of the most talented among them had in finding time to write and gaining attention. During its history, the program awarded grants to 164 outstanding women writers for a total of more than $3 million. 2020 was the final year of the Writers’ Awards program. Find our announcement here. We continue to celebrate our award winners and their literary achievements.

 

Past recipients of the Writers’ Awards such as Rachel Aviv, Elif Batuman, Chelsea Bieker, Eula Biss, Lan Samantha Chang, Ebony Flowers, Vievee Francis, Rivka Galchen, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, ZZ Packer, Helen Phillips, Kirstin Valdez Quade, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, Namwali Serpell, Solmaz Sharif, Tracy K. Smith, Mary Syzbist, and Tiphanie Yanique have since received wider critical recognition, including Poet Laureate of the United States, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lambda Literary Award, the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award, the Caine Prize for African Writing, the Rome Prize, the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, the United States Artists Fellowship, and the Whiting Writer’s Award.

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