Salvatore Scibona, the Writing Coordinator here at the Work Center, a Former Fellow (2001-02, 2002-03), and author of the novel The End (just out in paperback), has received a prestigious Whiting Writers' Award. This latest prize follows his other recent recognitions of achievement, including receiving the New York Public Library's 2009 Young Lions Fiction Award, and being one of the five finalists for the 2008 National Book Award.
The Whiting Writers' Award is a prize of $50,000, given annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays, based on accomplishment and promise.
Whiting Writers' Awards candidates are proposed by about a hundred anonymous nominators from across the country whose experience and vocations give them knowledge about individuals of extraordinary talent. Winners are chosen by a small anonymous selection committee of recognized writers, literary scholars, and editors, appointed annually by the Foundation. At four meetings over the course of the year, the selectors discuss the candidates' work and gradually winnow the list. They then recommend up to ten writers for awards to the Foundation's Trustees. The Foundation accepts nominations only from the designated nominators.
The Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation was established in 1963 by Flora E. Whiting. In 1972, her unrestricted bequest of over $10 million enabled the Foundation to establish the Whiting Fellowships in the Humanities for doctoral candidates in their dissertation year. In the years since, the Foundation has annually awarded grants to Bryn Mawr, University of Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale to fund these Fellowships, the recipients of which are selected by each institution. The Foundation created the Whiting Writers' Awards in 1985 under the direction of Gerald Freund, who organized and led the program until his death in 1997.
To learn more about the Whiting Foundation and the selection process for the Whiting Writers' Awards visit the website at: www.whitingfoundation.org
Visit Salvatore's website www.theendnovel.com.
