Lannan Literary Awards Explained
The Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation. Established in 1989, the awards are meant "to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional quality", according to the foundation.[1] The foundation's awards are lucrative relative to most awards in literature: the 2006 awards for poetry, fiction and nonfiction each came with $150,000, making them among the richest literary prizes in the world.
The awards reflect the philosophy governing the Lannan Foundation, a family foundation established by financier and art patron J. Patrick Lannan Sr. in 1960.[2] It describes itself as "dedicated to cultural freedom, diversity and creativity through projects which support exceptional contemporary artists and writers, as well as inspired Native activists in rural indigenous communities."[3]
Awards have been made to acclaimed and varied literary figures such as David Foster Wallace, William Gaddis, Lydia Davis, William H. Gass, Steve Erickson and W. S. Merwin. The foundation has also recognized people known as much for their public intellectual activities as for their literary talents, such as Barbara Ehrenreich and Edward Said.
The foundation also gives a "Cultural Freedom Prize" for the stated purpose of recognizing "people whose extraordinary and courageous work celebrates the human right to freedom of imagination, inquiry, and expression."[4] Prize winners include Claudia Andujar, Helen Caldicott, Julián Cardona, Elouise P. Cobell, Mahmoud Darwish, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Robert Fisk, Eduardo Galeano, Arundhati Roy, Bryan Stevenson and Cornel West.
The foundation does not accept applications for awards or fellowships. Candidates are suggested anonymously "by a network of writers, literary scholars, publishers, and editors," with the foundation's literary committee making the final determination.[1]
The foundation also "provides financial assistance to tribes and nonprofits that serve Native American communities..."[5] For instance, it gave more than $7 million in grants to the Blackfeet Reservation Development Fund from 1998 to 2009, to support litigation on behalf of Native Americans with interests in trust lands. This nonprofit was created by Elouise P. Cobell and her legal team to bring claims against the United States for mismanaging lands held in trust for Native Americans. The Cobell v. Salazar case was filed in 1996 and settled in 2009.[5]
Lannan Literary Award for Poetry
Peter Levitt
George Evans
Cid Corman
Seamus Heaney
Derek Mahon
Pattiann Rogers
William Bronk
Chrystos
William Bronk
Luis J. Rodriguez
Susan Mitchell
Suzanne Gardinier
Killarney Clary
Thomas Centolella
A. R. Ammons
Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Denise Levertov
Cyrus Cassells
Richard Kenney
Jack Gilbert
Linda Hogan
Eavan Boland
Simon Armitage
Li-Young Lee
Arthur Sze
Carol Ann Duffy
Hayden Carruth
Donald Justice
William Trevor
Lucille Clifton
Anne Carson
Ken Smith
Mary Oliver
Jon Davis
Frank Bidart
Louise Glück
C. D. Wright
Dennis O'Driscoll
Jay Wright
Herbert Morris
Peter Dale Scott
Alan Dugan
Peter Reading
Pattiann Rogers
Bruce Weigl
August Kleinzahler
Dennis O'Driscoll
Claudia Rankine
A. Van Jordan
Tyehimba Jess
Shane McCrae
Evie Shockley
Carolyn Forché
Lannan Literary Award for Fiction
John Berger
John Hawkes
John Edgar Wideman
Alexander Theroux
Sandra Cisneros
Gilbert Sorrentino
Frank Chin
Paul West
Carole Maso
Denis Johnson
Rikki Ducornet
Stephen Wright
Caryl Phillips
Steven Millhauser
Edward P. Jones
Alice Munro
Mary Morrissy
Louis de Bernières
David Foster Wallace
Tim Pears
Howard Norman
Grace Paley
Anne Michaels
John Banville
Lois-Ann Yamanaka
Stuart Dybek
Lydia Davis
J. M. Coetzee
Joanna Scott
Richard Powers
Jamaica Kincaid
Gish Jen
Leslie Marmon Silko
Cynthia Ozick
David Malouf
Robert Coover
John McGahern
Alistair MacLeod
Edward P. Jones
Rikki Ducornet
Kathryn Davis
Susan Straight
A. L. Kennedy
John Keene
Kevin Barry
Deborah Levy
Rabih Alameddine
Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction
Wendell Berry
Barry Lopez
Christopher Hitchens
Noam Chomsky
Terry Tempest Williams
Edward Hoagland
Jonathan Kozol
Richard K. Nelson
Scott Russell Sanders
Charles Bowden
David Abram
David Quammen
Howard Zinn
Lawrence Weschler
Chet Raymo
Gary Paul Nabhan
Jared Diamond
Carl Safina
Bill McKibben
Barbara Ehrenreich
Lewis Hyde
Wade Davis
Rebecca Solnit
Luís Alberto Urrea
David G. Campbell
Adam Hochschild
Tim Flannery
Mike Davis
Nick Estes
Lannan Literary Award for An Especially Notable Book
The New American Militarism: How Americans are Seduced by War, by Andrew J. Bacevich
Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism, by Sheldon Wolin
Lannan Literary Fellowship
Pattiann Rogers
William Everson
George Saunders
Lorrie Moore
David Wong Louie
Deborah Levy
Barbara Ehrenreich
Rubén Martínez
Lewis Hyde
David James Duncan
Ahdaf Soueif
Naomi Shihab Nye
James Alan McPherson
James Galvin
Ann Cummins
Mary Rakow
Chris Offutt
Linda Gregg
George Evans
Deborah Eisenberg
Chris Abani
Edwidge Danticat
Chris Hedges
Paula Gunn Allen
Charles D'Ambrosio
Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award
Kay Boyle
William Gaddis
R. S. Thomas
William H. Gass
John Barth
Adrienne Rich
Evan S. Connell
Edward Said
Robert Creeley
Peter Matthiessen
John Berger
W. S. Merwin
Gilbert Sorrentino
Anne Stevenson
Joseph Stroud
Steve Erickson
John Edgar Wideman
Yusef Komunyakaa
See also
External links
Notes and References
- Web site: Awards and Fellowships - Lannan Foundation . Lannan Foundation . August 2, 2016.
- Web site: History - Lannan Foundation . Lannan Foundation . August 2, 2016.
- Web site: Welcome - Lannan Foundation . Lannan Foundation . August 2, 2016.
- http://www.lannan.org/lf/cf/prize/
- http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/07/19/59506.htm Iulia Filip, "Quarrel over Fees in $3 Billion Cobell Case"
- Web site: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. Lannan Foundation. June 1, 2017.
- Web site: Mitchell S. Jackson. Lannan Foundation. 15 August 2016.
- Web site: Lannan Foundation Announces 2016 Literary Awards & Fellows . Harriet Staff . . November 15, 2016 . December 22, 2023 . December 22, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231222183910/https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet-books/2016/11/lannan-foundation-announces-2016-literary-awards-fellows . live.
