Literary gay couple Donald Windham and Sandy Campbell left a fortune to Yale to endow awards given annually to nine writers across fiction, nonfiction, and drama, each of whom receives $150,000. Writers do not apply for the prizes, which are determined by experts in each field. Please note, the awards honor career achievement (irrespective of sexual orientation) and the works cited below are simply to jog your memory. This morning saw the announcement of the first winners:
FICTION:
James Salter (A Sport and a Pastime, All That Is)
Zoe Wicomb (Playing in the Light
, David's Story
)
Tom McCarthy (C
, Remainder)
NON-FICTION:
Jonny Steinberg (Sizwe's Test: A Young Man's Journey Through Africa's AIDS Epidemic
)
Adina Hoffman (My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness)
Jeremy Scahill (Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army
)
DRAMA:
Naomi Wallce (In the Heart of America
)
Stephen Aldy Guirgis (The Motherfucker With the Hat)
Tarell McCraney (The Brother/Sister Plays)
If you haven't read Donald Windham, start with Two People
, a really lovely surprise from 1965 about a married American man's extended stay in Rome and his affair with a local teenage boy. An actor, writer, and editor, Sandy Campbell published his thoughts on two very famous authors in Mrs. Joyce of Zurich and Mr. Forster of King's
.
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