Whiting Awards

Since 1985, the Whiting Awards have been given annually to 10 emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. The awards, of $50,000 each, are based on early accomplishment and the promise of great work to come.

2023 Winners:

Fiction The Marvellous Equations of the Dread by Marcia Douglas Marcia Douglas was born in the United Kingdom. Douglas is the author of the novels, Madam Fate, Notes from a Writer's Book of Cures and Spells, and The Marvellous Equations of the Dread: a Novel in Bass Riddim, as well as the collection of poetry, Electricity Comes to Cocoa Bottom. Her fiction, essays, reviews and interviews have appeared in The New York Review of Books, Bomb Magazine, and in anthologies such as Kingston Noir, Jubilation: 50 Years of Jamaican Poetry Since Independence, Queen’s Case: Jamaican Literature, and more. She has been the recipient of awards and fellowships from the NEA and Creative Capital and teaches at the University of Colorado, Boulder.	Fiction Stories from The Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana Sidik Fofana is an American public school teacher and writer. Fofana received his B.A. from Columbia University in 2005 and his MFA from New York University. He also obtained a master's in education from the City University of New York in 2013. He is the author of Stories from the Tenants Downstairs, a collection of eight short stories about the struggles and inner lives of residents of diverse backgrounds living in a Harlem high-rise who face a rent increase after the building was sold to a corporate real estate company.
Fiction Eat the Mouth That Feeds You by Carribean Fragoza Carribean Fragoza is a fiction and nonfiction from South El Monte, CA. Her collection of stories Eat the Mouth That Feeds You was published in 2021 by City Lights and was a finalist for a 2022 PEN Award. She is the Prose Editor at Huizache Magazine and Creative Nonfiction and Poetry Editor at Boom California, a journal of UC Press. Fragoza is the founder and co-director of South El Monte Arts Posse, an interdisciplinary arts collective.	Fiction No One Else by R. Kikuo Johnson R. Kikuo Johnson is a cartoonist and illustrator born in Maui, Hawaii. His drawings regularly appear on the cover of The New Yorker and in advertisements for companies like Apple, Nike, and Coca-Cola. Johnson divides his time drawing in Brooklyn, teaching at the Rhode Island School of Design, and living with his family in Hawaii. On its fifteenth anniversary, a new edition of his debut graphic novel, Night Fisher, was published by Fantagraphics in 2021. His most recent book, the graphic novella No One Else, won the 2022 LA Times Book Prize.
Nonfiction Come to This Court & Cry How the Holocaust Ends by Linda Kinstler Linda Kinstler is a contributing writer for Jewish Currents and The Economist’s 1843 Magazine, and the deputy editor of The Dial. Her writing has been cited by the International Court of Justice and has inspired documentaries. Kinstler’s work appears in The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Wired, and more. Come to This Court and Cry: How the Holocaust Ends is her first nonfiction book. She is currently completing a Ph.D in the Rhetoric Department at U.C. Berkeley, where her dissertation is a legal genealogy of oblivion.	Poetry, Drama Joan of Arkansas by Emma Wippermann Emma Wippermann is the author of Joan of Arkansas (forthcoming from Ugly Duckling Presse) and Pleasure as a Series of Objects (Patient Sounds). Other work can be found in jubilat, Omniverse, Second Factory, Oversound, and elsewhere. They have an MFA from Brown University and live in New York City.
Poetry Fantasia for the Man in Blue by Tommye Blount Tommye Blount grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College. He is the author of the poetry collection Fantasia for the Man in Blue (2020) and the chapbook What Are We Not For (2016). Fantasia for the Man in Blue was a 2020 National Book Award Finalist in the Poetry category. Blount has been awarded scholarships and fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Cave Canem, and Kresge Arts. He lives in Novi, Michigan.	Poetry Bluest Nude by Ama Codjoe Ama Codjoe is the author of Bluest Nude, finalist for a 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Poetry. She is also the author of Blood of the Air, winner of the Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize. Codjoe’s poems have twice appeared in the Best American Poetry series. Her honors include a 2017 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award, a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, and a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship.
Nonfiction Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino Jia Tolentino is a staff writer at The New Yorker, formerly the deputy editor at Jezebel and a contributing editor at The Hairpin. She grew up in Texas, went to the University of Virginia, and got her MFA in Fiction from the University of Michigan. Her book of essays, Trick Mirror, was a New York Times bestseller. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, TIME, and others. She lives in Brooklyn.